Not all change is good. Not all forward momentum is good. While the shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, sometimes we can't get to our destination as the crow flies due to obstacles in our path. It shows a lack of wisdom to continue pushing forward against an indominable foe when we could simply go around it. Sometimes in order to go forwards you must first go backwards.
About halfway through my sojourn in the missionary training center in UT, I was injured in a soccer game. The injury kept me off my leg for weeks on end. I hobbled around on crutches and treated the wound as delicately as possible until I finally saw a physician. The injury directed exactly where I would begin my service as a missionary since the doctor forbade me from doing too much walking. God has often shut up the way for me to get me where he needs me to be.
The injury held me back. It also gave me perspective. I take better care of myself now, especially since I run, since there was some undetected and untreated damage that I can feel in my ankle and knee when I run for more than an hour at a time. Before, I took my good health for granted. Additionally, I came to see years later that people are doing the best they can with what they have, and that I cannot expect them to walk as fast as I do or as determinately.
Sometimes I forget the lesson. People regularly ask me to slow down, not to hold me back, but so that they can keep up. If you want to get where you want to go in the condition you want, sometimes, you have to take a step backwards.
Last summer, I was out riding bikes with a friend who lacked the experience I do. I found myself riding back down to check up on my friend so that I didn't get out too far ahead. See, I wanted to arrive together; it wasn't a race, and so in order to do what I wanted to do, periodically I had to go backwards.
If you run up against an obstacle, pushing against it won't get you the results you want necessarily. Sometimes it's best to seek another route and go around. One night on the way home from work in Lovelock, I was driving along I-80 in the snow and came up against stalled traffic. A semi-truck had jacknifed in the canyon and blocked both lanes of traffic in the winding Truckee River corridor just east of Reno. I drove across the median, headed back to a previous exit and took the back road home. That road by comparison was relatively empty and almost entirely devoid of snow, so I made good time once I opted to turn around and head back to the previous exit. I do not know how long I'd have waited for the road to clear, but I also found a safer route that night by being willing to take a step back to make good time moving forward.
Right now, I'm facing a setback in my life. After much thought and some discussion with my cousin and my mother, I realized that maybe this was what I needed in order to make progress. It would not be the first time. So, I decided to choose happy thoughts and hope that this is what I need to get to where I want to go, even if I can't see it right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment