The other day I was feeling like my wheels were spinning yet I was going nowhere.  You know the feeling:  When you are so busy with stuff and yet you feel stuck in a rut and not making any progress.  I don’t like that feeling.

Yesterday I started physical therapy for my back.  Today I woke up and it hurt more than usual.

Sigh.

I feel like it’s time to make some progress in my life yet I feel stuck where I am and tired of it too!  Do you ever feel that way?  With my back hurting me and the crisp yet sunny morning beckoning  I got my walking shoes on and left the house hoping I could clear some cobwebs from my head.  I was hoping the walk would loosen up my back too.

Now I have this route that I have been walking for a couple of years that consists of a path of concentric circles, like the leaves of a shamrock, so that I can walk a short distance and be back home, or continue with another round and lengthen my walk.  As I walked out the door with my attitude I found myself walking in another direction.  I started grumbling to myself that I had totally gone in an old direction that makes me walk a long distance away from the house before I can walk back home.  But I kept walking.  I started mumbling to God as I do on my walks and obediently shut up so I could listen instead.

Here’s what I heard:

It’s okay if some days we feel like we are going nowhere.  The good thing is our wheels are still spinning!  If we stop moving … well … we stop.  We just sink deeper into that mud pit that we are stuck in.  But if we keep moving with our wheels turning, sooner or later the wheels are going to catch hold and we’ll find ourselves moving again.  Maybe we want to get moving TODAY but maybe God has a reason for us to be patient and wait for progress to be made tomorrow.  I have an acquaintance who is struggling both with a special needs child and an ailing elderly mom who has been in and out of hospitals lately and she wants things to change and get better NOW.  She is tired of being stuck in her rut.  I understand.  But whether we are stuck for 5 days, a year, or thirty years – I believe if we put our trust in God, He has a reason for the timing and will give us the strength to keep our wheels spinning.

I remember once when I was stuck in my car on an icy street corner.  I panicked and tried at first to push on the accelerator in hopes of driving fast off of the ice.  That didn’t work.  Only when I calmed down and gently started rocking the car – forward, then reverse, then forward, then reverse – did I get some real strong forward momentum going and I was able to calmly move forward and off my icy patch.  And I think life is like that sometimes.  Stuck in a rut, we may have to spin our wheels for a while or even take a few steps backward, then forward, and even backwards again before we can continue on our journey.

When I got to the end of my walking route today, I was tired and mad at taking a different route today.  But I had no choice, for to get back home I had to walk some more.  I made it home of course, and my back even stopped hurting.  I think it was stiff and stuck too – and just needed to be limbered up.

Stuck in a rut?  Waiting for directions and a new route?

Just keep moving  🙂

Hebrews 12:1b Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Acts 17:28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.

Just Laurel