Keep Moving Forward

Scripture

The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.

Job 17:9

Observation

Job was done. He had enough suffering and loss to last ten lifetimes. He’d had more than enough self-righteous speeches for his “friends.” He assumed his story was over. “15Where then is my hope? Can anyone find it? 16No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!” Yet, even in the cynicism that pain often brings Job was unknowingly prophesying to himself exactly what was going to happen. We have the advantage of knowing how his story ends. He meets with God. He knows His Redeemer lives and therefore he can live. He becomes more blessed in the latter part of his life than in the former. How? Even when he had no reason, no strength, no hope, no support, Job kept moving forward. At the lowest point of his life God met him there and he went from being weak, to the point of death, to a man who became “stronger and stronger” through God. If anyone had a reason to give up or shift into neutral it was Job, a righteous man, who had everything taken from him in an instant. Yet, even through the barrage of blustery words and the searing pain Job kept moving forward until he met God.

Application

I was 17 years old and my drivers license was in my crosshairs. I was almost done with my Drivers Training class which meant I could make an appointment to take my drivers test. There was only one problem. I didn’t know how to drive standard, or “stick shift”. I remember, clear as day, when Pop took me out to a backroad behind the race track just outside of town. He drove our Nissan truck to the bottom of that hill, turned the truck around so it was facing the top, and handed me the keys. Pop knew that if I could master the clutch pedal and gas pedal operation on a hill without stalling than I could handle it anywhere. I remember sitting behind that wheel stuck somewhere between the top and the bottom of that hill and realizing that if I’m not moving forward, I’m moving backward. Pop was right there in the passenger seat next to me encouraging me to keep trying every time I stalled out. He was right there reminding me of where the brake was every time I started to roll back. He was right there cheering me on when I finally mastered the clutch/gas timing and roared up that hill. Start the engine, first gear, second gear, we were on our way! It was only later that I realized Pop wasn’t just teaching me a lesson on driving, he was teaching me a lesson on life. Life is uphill. There is no neutral on this road. If you’re not moving forward you’re moving backward. "Keep moving forward" is so much more than a "positive thinking" poster on the wall of your 6th grade classroom. The tension is real. There are lives depending on the fact that we have a grit that won’t quit just because it’s hard. There's a realization that, just like that day I learned the stick shift, if I don’t master this now, I’m going to miss out on the freedom that awaits me. I’m reading through this book again called “Grit”. As the very title of the book indicates, Grit is both passion and perseverance. The author, Angela Duckworth, defines passion as “consistency over time.” Clarifying even more when she writes, “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare”. She defines perseverance as a “quiet determination to stick to a course once decided upon”. Applying it to the Christian life, Eugene Peterson describes following Jesus as “a long obedience in the same direction.” In other words, keep moving forward.

Prayer

I haven’t faced any loss in comparison to Job. I don’t have a group of self-righteous “friends” giving me lectures in the midst of my pain. I do, however, face moments where it feels like it would just be easier to shift into neutral for a bit. To back out of the pressure of leading my family and my church and “just chill” seems like a good idea at times. Especially, when it seems no progress is being made and I’m that 17 year old kid stuck in the middle of a hill. Yet, here You are, meeting me like you did with Job, like Pop in the passenger seat, reminding to keep moving forward. Reminding me that, just the fact that I haven’t given up when so many are doing just that, is progress in and of itself. As I stand on the threshold of my 48th year of life I needed this fresh reminder from Your Word and Your Spirit. Life is lived on an incline and there’s no such thing as neutral in the Kingdom of God!