Slow and sudden progress
Do you ever feel like your life is at a standstill, while other people seem to be making moves left and right? And though you’re making some serious efforts to move along a goal or a dream, there are so many setbacks and discouragements along the way you wonder if it’s even worth it to keep trying.
Me too—in a few important areas of my life. One of which is my writing. I’ve felt called back to it, but it’s been harder than ever to do it and to do it consistently.
A few weeks ago, we went down to Florida to visit my parents. My sister-in-law told me about a super-cute place near their house called Vanessa’s Coffee Shop, so I got away one Sunday afternoon for a couple hours of solo journaling and coffee. It was beautiful. I read Vanessa’s powerful story on their website, and God’s Hand was written all over it. The owner is a Puerto Rican woman with a turbulent upbringing who always dreamed of owning a coffee shop. She now owns three in the Orlando area.
I took out my gorgeous journal that a dear friend recently gifted me and thought about the fact that the woman who created the journal was also Puerto Rican and carrying out her God-given dreams. Her company is called Grit & Virtue, and they offer business coaching and the best-looking, most inspiring, well-crafted journals I’ve ever seen.
Both women were on their paths—running their races, and I could see myself in each of them. I sat inspired—proud, even.
But I couldn’t help but think of how behind I felt. I sat and wrote a letter to God asking Him why I was so slow. Why I exert so much energy, but progress always seemed to be 5 steps forward, 3 steps back, then one step forward, then another back … repeat, repeat, repeat …
I asked God if there was anything He wanted me to know. And then I wrote these words:
You are not slow to Me. I can pick you up from wherever you are in the race and put you further up in a second.
Two days later at my parents’ house, my husband was out watching our girls in the pool when I heard some commotion. My middle child, Eva, popped her head through the sliding glass door and yells, “There’s a turtle out here!” I jumped up and ran to see it. We all stared at this huge turtle in my parents’ fenced yard. My eyes surveyed the white picket fence checking for gaps under it. How in the world did he get in? None of us could figure it out, but one thing was clear—he was determined to get out.
This guy, who was at least 18” long, somehow picked his body up vertically and continuously tried to throw himself through the too-narrow picket gaps in the fence. He tried to slide through them like a book in a shelf. He did this over and over again. Each effort looked awkward, strenuous, and exhausting.
My mom grabbed a broom and tried to prod him towards the gate, with no avail. I thought maybe we should just leave it alone, but then she came back out with a huge pool net. I laughed at how ridiculous that idea seemed. But after lots of effort and a good dose of fear, my 5-foot-tall mother managed to get the net around him and drag his heavy body to the gate. She held it open and pulled him a few feet out to a grassy area near the pond. As soon as she shimmied the net halfway off his body, he jetted! And when I say he jetted, I mean I had no clue a turtle could move that fast. Within like 3 seconds he was about 15 feet away, in the pond, and out of our sight.
It took a few days for everything to sink in, but after getting back from our trip and journaling about it all, I shook my head and smiled at the lengths God would go to show me exactly what He told me at the coffee shop.
I could spin my wheels and try my hardest to get where I want to go, but ultimately all it takes is one move of God to position me in just the right spot. And when that happens, I’ll even surprise myself with my progress. It’ll feel sudden, but I’ll know all the time and effort that went in beforehand.
Have you felt like a turtle lately? Like all your efforts are strenuous and slow, and worse yet not amounting to much. Maybe you’re wondering if it’s even worth it.
If you are making ANY progress, if you are trying, if you’ve been taking those painfully slow steps wondering if you’ll ever reach that impossible pond you keep trying to get to … I sense God saying …
Keep going. At just the right time I will help you in ways you could never help yourself. Your efforts are not in vain, your efforts are called faith. They are called obedience. They are you walking out what you believe and trusting Me with the timing and results.
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At the right time, I, the LORD, will make it happen. - Isaiah 60:22
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. - Galatians 6:9-10