Barriers to Momentum

Before I begin this post I want to acknowledge a book and its author that has recently had an impact on my life. As a matter of fact it led to some of the things I suggested in my last post. If you have not read Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli then get it, read it, and let it soak in. Don't reject it too easily. He really challenged me and made me take a closer look at me, others, and our relationship with God. Thanks Mike for a fresh perspective on spirituality and what it means to become more like Christ.

=========================

Momentum, the unimpeded force of God in our lives, can be stopped in its tracks as soon as it encounters a barrier.

What's a barrier? Let begin with what a barrier doesn't include. Barriers don't include:
people
situations
relationships
circumstances

While these absolutely have an affect on us and the unimpeded force of God in our lives, these, in and of themselves are not barriers. They are simply outside influences that impact our lives.

A barrier would include any response to an external influence. Allow me to go a little deeper. A barrier would include:
our attitudes
beliefs
perspectives
heartset
mindset

Barriers are any repsonse to an outside influence that would hinder, restrain, restrict, or get in the way of God having complete and unlimited access to our lives. Barriers are like hurdles in the wrong race. Hurdles have a place on the track - 100 m high hurdles, 300 m intermediate hurdles, but when it comes to experiencing spiritual momentum in our lives - HURDLES DON'T BELONG!

In high school I used to run the 880 (back when we ran 'merican distances not this metric stuff kids are forced to run today!). Every race I ran at home my brother would stand in the final corner and yell, "Kick! Push it!" At his encouragement I would put my head down and give it everything I had through the last 100 yards. Now what do you think would happen to my momentum if I looked up with 10 yards to go and ran smack dab into a hurdle? Yeah, I would come crashing down to the ground along with all the momentum I had built up over the previous 870 yards. It would take a great deal of momentum to get back up and stagger across the finish line.

Barriers are exactly like this. We are serving, loving, giving, investing, growing, accepting, and all the dynamics of experiencing momentum in our lives. Then, there's a hurdle. We hit it and come tumbling down, along with all the momentum we had gained.

What we need to realize is that our response to outside influences will either be a channel for God's incredible force or it will be a hurdle that brings us down.

What will your response be?

I'm selling a house, buying a house, painting (and I dislike painting more than I dislike yard work), cleaning, making the bed every morning (Karen's influence), preparing for the transition of moving, dealing with financial decisions that were a headache. Will these influence serve as a channel of God's force in my life or become a hurdle? To be honest there are times when the switch begins to be flipped and I begin to get frustrated and want to lash out. I mean, don't these credit card companies know that my wife's dead - she can't call or contact them!! Then I just let God take charge. When I do I experience the peace and unimpeded force of God. It is sooo cool to watch God work. He's already found a buyer for my house (after only 5 days on the market). He's provided a house. He's worked out the financial stuff. He's organized my steps for the month of June! Channel or Hurdle? For me . . . Channel (today).

So what do we do when we experience a hurdle in our lives. Take a page from the life of Joshua. He encountered a hurdle called Achan (who stole some stuff God said to leave alone) What we must see is that Achan wasn't the only one who saw the pretty robe, silver, and gold. Thousands of Israelites saw them. They left the stuff alone. Through their response to these outside influences they avoided a hurdle in their lives, but Achan . . . poor, poor Achan couldn't resist. In doing so he not only ran into a hurdle in his personal life, but he brought the people of Isreal tumbling over a hurdle as well. God gaveJoshua some steps to take that we could learn and apply to our lives. When the Israelites tasted defeat at the hands of the people of Ai Joshua begin whining to God about how they should have been content where they were, yadda, yadda, yadda. God told him to "Get up!" Not once, but twice! Then he told him to address the barrier, then to get rid of it.

What does this have to do with our lives? If we are to deal with hurdles in our own lives then we, like Joshua, must:
recognize that God does not want barriers between us and he
address the hurdle in our lives
get rid of the barrier

Now, I am the first to admit that getting rid of hurdles can be very, very difficult as well as painful. But if our desire is to experience the unimpeded force of God in our lives then hurdles must go not matter how painful or difficult the going part may be.

Valley experiencers will run into what could become a hurdle. Don't let your repsonse to a circumstance, person, or situation become a hurdle. Rather, recognize it for what it cab be and allow it to become a channel of God's unimpeded force in your life.

Runnin' with my head down!
Mike