Forward progress often looks like hiding in a cave

​I had a meeting with a work colleague and dear friend yesterday. As always happens when we get together, we spent a good bit of that meeting reflecting on our shared work in a deeper way than strategic plans and project management.

We recognized with one another that we often challenge people to keep moving forward, to be resilient, when sometimes moving forward doesn't look like movement at all.

Later, as I reflected on our conversation, I thought about King David from the bible, God's chosen one, the one who is so highly regarded that we often call Jesus the Son of David.

Before David became king, he spent time hiding in caves. King Saul had become so jealous and threatened by David's popularity that he set out to kill him. He saw David as a threat to his throne.

It's true, David was in hiding. But it is NOT true that David wasn't going anywhere while in that hiding.

David was praying in that cave, leaning into God for strength he couldn't find anywhere else. David was growing in patience; God had promised David the throne but it wasn't happening before some time in the cave. David was building a following and a community; even before he left the cave people showed up to support him, many of them with their own struggles.

Hiding in that cave, David was making forward progress toward the throne. Sometimes forward progress looks a lot like hiding.

Sometimes our own caves can make us doubt that we are going anywhere. I completely get that. I have spent more time in more caves in my life than I can begin to count.

But here I am. I may not be a king, but I have moved forward to a place I know God has called me to be.

Steven Furtick says, "don't let the cave you are in right now cause you to forfeit or discontinue the thing that God has put in you."

I didn't always know it while I was in the caves of my life, but those caves were places of reflection and growth. Those caves often felt like places of defeat, when in reality they were opportunities to deepen my faith, to re-evaluate my life, and grow in wisdom.

It's important for me to know that. Because even today I still can find myself in caves. There are mornings I wake up feeling like my day is actually starting in a cave. It may look and feel like I'm hiding in a cave, but don't be fooled, I tell myself, I am moving forward.

And so are you.

If you're hiding in a cave right now, hang on to your visions and dreams. Hang on to the places God is pointing you to go. The path may feel like hiding right now, but sometimes forward motion feels a lot like hiding.

Sometimes the cave is preparation. Sometimes the cave is part of the process. But what the cave is NEVER going to be - it is never the final destination.

Trust that in your cave.

It may feel like you're going nowhere, but you ARE absolutely moving forward.