Keep Moving

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 18-20.

Opening Thought: Keep Moving is a simple battle cry to keep on truckin’. For those who have a world view which pulls them towards hope, I believe it is much easier to remember to keep moving. Not to say that those without faith can’t find motivation, rather, if you have faith in God, or something eternal and ever present then your motivation is always with you. If your motivation is based on something finite and transient then that is bit trickier, as it will come and go.   

The devotional begins with: 
Jeremiah 29:11, [NIV]

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Second Thought: There were three main points to Nick’s devotion today. 1) Don’t Give Up 2) God has a Plan for You 3) Follow Your Passions. Good enough, but I want to pull this apart a bit and put it back together. Nick used an example of his career to illustrate his point, saying his father suggested he become and accountant, as it was a safer choice of careers, but Nick loved expressing his faith and public speaking, so he followed the faith and dream, and years later he is a famous Christian speaker. I always find it challenging when I hear celebrities, even Christian celebrities or influencers say, you can do it too. “It’s like a bastardized proverb.” I know they mean well, but I think the misconception that can inter-lay into their message is, you can become famous and make lots of money too, even if they had no intention of saying that. Their mere status will say it. If God’s plan for you is to make you a humble and a poor person, who smiles through the tragic drama that is life, then that is a lot different of an experience than becoming a traveling and well-paid speaker. I’m not saying what Nick is offering here is wrong per se, but rather the destination that you and God may be finding together, might not be the flashy life, it could be a quiet life, a peaceful life, a life of hard work with little thanks. God’s goodness is so much more versatile than the ‘American Dream’.   

Continual Work: "If you are still searching for your path in life…” This wording I like better, there are many path’s in life and just as many different people for those pathways. If you feel called by your core and by God to become the best damn fast food employee, that’s great. It is not so much what your passion is, it is about how you are being passionate; and in your passion, in your work, and in your enjoyment, are you living a life of faith? Are you loving God and the neighbor the way Jesus calls you too? Live the dream but do it in the way of Jesus.  

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I do truly feel blessed, my faith life, my passion and my career are all one and the same. Today’s devotional time is giving me a call today towards feelings of thanksgiving. I feel I have found my pathway, and I am sure it is still bound to take me places I don’t expect, but in the meantime, I am grateful.  

Scripture time: Jeremiah 29

The scripture of Jeremiah 29 is a letter set in a time of exile. That makes the use of it so much more powerful. Take Nick’s message today and imagine your in exile, force from house a home. Then God says in a manner, I GOT YOU, GO AHEAD LIVE LIFE. If God calls us to contentment and even happiness in time of exile, then that affirms to me my minor critic of today devotion. It is great to have dreams and passions, but that true dream and passion is being in communion with God. To live His ways no matter the circumstances of your situation. If you’re in tough times, don’t let that rob you of the gift of life, rejoice because you have life, you have been given a chance to do something at all. So live that something with the passion of God, the life of the cross, that surrender to God, falling in love with His hope. That doesn’t mean that things, from time to time, will never royally suck, but if you allow those sucky times to defeat you, then there is no chance for God to bring you any happiness, or for you to live and dive into your passions.

Prayer Time: Father in Heaven, Dad, be the guiding hand of a parent and lead us all to a new day. No matter what we face in our hours ahead, put a spring in our steps. Use us to bring your love and passion to each moment of life, in time of joy and sorrow, let your life of light be a dancing breeze among the turning pages of our life story. In the name of your Son, Christ Jesus, Amen.

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close: I love inspiration, but I do shy away from anything that seems too close to the “American Dream”, which has its own value for sure, but the Christian dream is so much more important, so I leave you with a well-known quote from Karl Barth:

“Faith in God’s revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo.”