An Angel Is waiting, so Keep moving

​It's been a common refrain the past few weeks. I've heard it from my work teams. I've seen it in the counseling center where I work. I've heard it from friends. Over and over - I've heard people say, "I am struggling."

I have found myself joining that refrain. I told a friend recently that life has felt inexplicably heavy. Like, I can't identify the why - but I can sure feel the heavy.

I listened to Steven Furtick last night. And when I heard him say, "often God positions you according to a higher priority than your preference," the why hit me. The why is - I'm positioned in some places and in some things in life right now that are not my preferences.

I think about the communities I work in - I think about the college students I work with - I think about my friends' jobs - I think about people's family situations - I think about my boys - for so many people, life looks drastically different than it did just 18 months ago.

People's positions aren't where and what they used to be. I wonder if collectively we aren't hitting a tipping point.

In his sermon, Furtick quoted Exodus 23:20:

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared."

God spoke these words to the Israelites, who had just spent 400 years in a place they didn't want to be. God is trying to offer them encouragement - I've sent an angel AHEAD of you - to guard you ALONG the way.

Here's the thing about getting to something that is out ahead of us - we have to keep moving to get there.

Here's the thing about being guarded along the way - we have to be moving to be along the way.

I have been here before. I have been in positions before that were not my preference. I have been here before - feeling heavy with a preference for being positioned somewhere else - with a preference for doing something else.

And I have also been HERE before, in this place where I can look back and clearly see that God has always been with me along the way. I can look back and see God has ALWAYS had an angel up ahead waiting on me.

Here is the key - for God to be with me along the way, I've always had to keep moving. For me to get to the angel up ahead, I've always had to physically get myself to UP AHEAD.

God promises to be with us; God does not promise to physically pick us up out of the bed and transport us there. I have to keep moving. We have to.

We are all on a journey. None of us truly know where we are going. But we ALL know this; we aren't getting there if we don't keep moving. We do not get the full benefit of a God with us along the way if we don't keep moving along our way. We don't get to meet the angel up ahead if we don't keep moving toward up ahead.

I've been living in a lot of positions in my life that weren't my preference. And in every one of them - God came alongside me - he walked with me toward the angel - where I was reminded - God's purpose is always better than my preference.

Every time.

So keep moving friends. No matter how heavy, keep moving. An angel is waiting.