Momentum

"The undertaking of a new action brings new strength." (Richard L. Evans) While this is ultimately quite true, most of us begin some new task wishing to be where we want to end up right from the beginning - we wish the steps in between didn't have to be taken because it is a lot of work sometimes just putting one foot in front of the other!  Some think we make our own future, create our own hope, live as though we create the world in which we live. While I think keeping a positive attitude is quite important, we don't actually create our outcome just because we think our way to a positive approach to the problem at hand. We often have to struggle with the "negative" stuff in the middle of the problem, with the gamut of emotions that brings, until we reach the other side. As Evans said, the actual action we take creates a little bit of new or renewed strength in us. Each action is the starting place for momentum to develop - without action, there is no possibility of momentum because for momentum to exist, there must be movement. We don't create change by just thinking about it - we move forward with the first stumbling action and then add the next and the next until we seem to be moving as though we know where we are headed.

Your word is a lamp for my steps; it lights the path before me. (Psalm 119:105 VOICE)

The world we live in has become proficient at expecting action, but many times we just want to sit back and let someone else take that action. It is as though we all desire a certain course of action, but we do very little to help each other realize that goal. When we begin to realize our words only disguise the actions we "intended" to take, or mask the real actions we took along the way which were less than desirable, we might just stop using our words to disguise or mask our true momentum or lack of it. God's words, on the other hand, often reveal the true intent of our actions - because they reveal the heart of man better than anything else which exists. The scripture has a way of unmasking the intent of the heart, even when one's own words have done a great job of concealing the truth of one's inaction or wrongful action. It is time to realize that every word has an effect - regardless of whether we believe the true intent of those words were heard or not - but also that each step toward action we take has a powerful impact.

I believe it was Gandhi who said action expresses priorities. When we take a particular course of action, we are declaring our priority in the matter. We either have made our needs the priority, or we put the needs of another foremost. Some of us are proficient at ensuring both of these are met by the actions we take, but it is not likely we do this very well all of the time. We live a life of balancing between taking action which will help another, and taking action which is really intended to meet some need within us, but which might just also touch the life of another in a positive manner. It isn't that we totally separate the two, but that we sometimes don't realize the impact of action upon another until we see it. Our priorities must be focused correctly in order for the action to be that which produces the momentum we want to have carry us through till the end.When we allow God's word to illuminate our path, helping us to be guided into correction action, we find the momentum created is not always a result of our own actions - it is there because God is exerting the force behind that action which produces the results we are seeing!  Just sayin!