Going Backwards to Move Forward

I have to tell you that since our trip last week I've been doing a lot of pondering on what comes next for us. I've been asked that question a lot by our friends and family - What's next? It is a valid question, but when you don't have a clue as to the answer it can also be a painful one.

I've felt a bit like the tree in this picture - stripped bare. I do not mean that as a negative. Rather, it has caused me to stop and back up just a bit to take stock of things.

Sometimes in life, the only way to move forward is to go backwards first - a bit like a course correction. We had lunch with some good friends the other day, and they shared a similar experience of a time when they misheard God's voice. Their advice was to back up to the last time we were sure about where we were with God and go from there.

Knowing good counsel when we heard it, that is exactly what we have been doing. And you know, Papa has been speaking. It's funny. He's telling us the same thing He spoke to me when we were in Louisiana - live where I have placed you. That seems simple enough, but oftentimes, we are looking for the next thing. That's what we were doing. Our intentions were pure, but we still weren't walking where He placed us.

I certainly am not claiming to have all the answers for myself or anyone else at this point. I do know that we are doing our best to hear Him and follow His voice.

Something else that I realized is that there was no chastisement after all this. Oh, I chastised myself. I'm really good at that. But, my Father never spoke a harsh word to me. There has only been grace and love from Him. I suppose it goes to show how different my character is from His. Hopefully, I am growing closer with each victory and every misstep.

The key is perseverance, I suppose. What does Philippians 3:8-14 tell us? Paul says, and I echo his words:

⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - ¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death ¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

And so, like Paul, I will forget what lies behind because I could live in regret and wonder - pondering my mistakes. That would only serve to weaken my relationship with Papa. It would be as if I was saying that He is too small to take me from this place of disappointment and bring me back to a place of joy.

I refuse to concede! My Father's strength moves mountains, and He will uphold me by the strength of His right hand. I love 2 Corinthians 12:9 in the New King James Version. It says:

And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.