Moving On

"You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey..." 

(Deuteronomy 1:6b-7a).

The children of Israel took 40 years to make an eleven-day trip.  It was a straight shot from where they were outside of Egypt into their very own amazing destiny of a fertile land promised to them by God Himself.  A land flowing with milk and honey.  The sweet spot.  I'm sure when they set out toward their destination they thought it was going to be easy...

For 40 years they rattled around that desert, like a never-ending loop on an unfamiliar highway... you miss your exit and you have to go all the way around again to get back to it.  Missed your exit again? Go around again.  If you've ever experience that, and I definitely have, you know just how frustrating it can be! Each trip around the loop is another 20 minutes, and for whatever reason, the exits are not that easy to navigate.  "Why did they make the road like this???" Around and around you go like it's a spinning carnival ride... and the longer you're on it, the sicker you get.

I had a dream once that I was on a highway loop just like that.  The first time around, I took an exit that ended up being a dead-end, so I retraced my steps, got back on the highway, and went back around the loop... only to end up taking that same dead-end route.  Back on the highway, back around the loop, and back onto that blasted, infernal dead-end road.  Over and over and over, without mercy. Finally, I just gave up and walked home in the dark.

The frustrating thing in all this is that we can all relate in some way to the children of Israel and their stubborn, hard-headed, 40-year trip through an ungodly desert in which they circle the same mountain over and over and over again, all the while thinking they are making progress toward a new end.  Over time, our disappointed hopes begin to pile up...

Fad diets... I'll try this to lose weight, or that to lose weight, this and that, this and that, only to lose and regain the same 10 pounds (plus some) for two or three decades.  Eventually, we give up.  It works the same with money, with our children and our marriages, with our careers, with our relationships... even with deeper, darker issues that have taken over our lives... we work and work to figure it out, but we refuse to concede that maybe it's our choices that are the problem. Maybe we've gotten ourselves into a situation we can't get ourselves out of.  We refuse to see that maybe our ways are not the best ways.  

For some of us, sad to say, we'll never get out of the desert.  We're a little stubborn, maybe even a little prideful and unforgiving... and besides, we've grown comfortable with the heat, and the with the sand in everything... and the non-stop walking.  And maybe His way is too hard, maybe we're afraid to go that way... afraid to face our own giants of fear, failure, and past hurts.  Many of us just believe we can't do it.  No matter what we've done in the past, no matter how hard we've tried, we've never been able to accomplish our goals or attain freedom from our desert, so why keep trying?  Why keep banging our head against the same wall?  We're tired of trying and failing, tired of picking ourselves up again and again and again, tired of toiling and working to "keep on keeping on," exhausted from going around and around the same loop... so we quit.  We walk home in the dark.  "I'm done. I can't live like this anymore. I give up."  

For some, a journey that could have been beautiful ends in devastating defeat. All is lost. The struggle was for nothing.  

But for others... even though they've had these same ongoing struggles, even though they've been on this very same, seemingly endless, journey... even though they too have raised their white flag in surrender... something is different.

Many sons and daughters of God will wake up in the midst of their long walk in the desert.  Their heads hurting from mistake after mistake, and their bodies tired from the journey, they will see the sand and feel the hot sun... and in a crucial moment of choice... instead of whining and complaining and trying to "figure it out," these blessed ones grab onto a small tingle of a thought... a soft and tiny whisper of a feeling... that maybe they're doing it wrong.  Maybe they're making things more complicated than they really need to be.  Maybe, just maybe, they will never be able to get out of this desert alone, and everything they are doing only serves to keep them lost.  In that miraculous moment, their white flag of surrender does not mark the giving up of all hope, but the laying down of who they are in trade for something much better...

Maybe that's all it takes.

What would happen if we just decided that we were moving on.  That we were leaving that looping cycle of defeat.  Not quitting.  Not abandoning the journey. But moving forward through the power and strength of Jesus Christ alone. Maybe we just start walking in that direction toward new life. Just a simple "yes" to God to do one simple thing His way... and we just start walking.  Sure, we'll make mistakes along the way.  We'll fail.  We'll stumble and fall.  But we won't beat ourselves up. And we won't go back to the desert.  We'll simply stand back up and keep walking.  Through faith.  One step at a time. Always saying "yes" to God because we've chosen to believe He's working it all out.

God can do miraculous things... He can heal the sick, bring the dead to life, part the seas, bring down fire from heaven... and so much more.  But I believe He can also crawl right into the middle of our mess, put His arms around us, and gently lead us out, one step at a time.  Loving, Leading, and Comforting all along the way.  And He does this because we are His and He desires to be with us forever.  Will we trust Him?