Juggling LifeSample

Going Nowhere Fast

Society will tell you that life is a “rat race,” meaning what? They’re stuck in that place of cyclic living and don’t see a way out. Like the many varied items in a juggler’s hands, life seems to go around and around, without a destination, without an end. It’s like a race car hurtling around the track at two hundred miles an hour, putting miles on the car, wearing down the tires, while burning fuel in abundance only to find itself right back at the starting line, now called the finish line.

You weren’t created to finish in the same place you began; you weren't called to go nowhere fast. Yet, when we examine the children of Israel’s track-like journey, they also went in circles but at a much slower pace—traveling for forty years in the desert without arriving at their promised destination.

Have you ever felt like a mouse running on its wheel, going nowhere fast, yet growing wearier each minute? Even Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, wrote, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)

Today, yes, this very day, God wants to “rescue you from repetition.” Recently Pastor Justin did a message entitled “When Life Gets Too Loud.” He taught about God whispering to Elijah for new directions. Pastor Justin asked, “Why’d God whisper?” Because when someone whispers, it shows intimacy and requires quietness and close proximity. Hearing the whisper of God is one of the greatest ways we can be rescued from the repetitious, going nowhere cycles of our life! James 4:8 says, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” Realize that the closer you are to God, the easier it is to hear His whisper.

Isaiah 43:19 tells us that God wants to do something new and that we should look around and discover that it's already begun. We also learn in 1 Peter 5:7 that God cares for us so much that we should cast off all our cares and worries and give them to Jesus.

Reflection: What next steps must you take to break the cycle and head in God's direction for your life?