It was both what she said and didn’t say that led me to believe, this young lady sitting across from me needed a Forest Gump moment.
We had talked about her life and it’s direction. No major set-backs, no horrible decisions and their consequences made. But there was something that seemed to be unsettled, not quite as free as she should be at her age.
I asked her had she ever made any decisions that were hers and just hers alone. “Very few”, she said. “Most of the decisions I have made have been to please others or because others thought it was a good idea.”
It was then that it hit me.
The image of Forest Gump popped in my head and the scene where he has those heavy braces on his legs. The boys in town begin to throw rocks at him and chase him with a pick-up truck. And Jenny is yelling, “Run Forest…run.” That scene.
It was at that point in the movie that the shot went to slow motion and the braces he was so striving with and could not get free of as he attempted to run began to break apart from the stress they were under. As Forest ran harder the braces fell of completely allowing Forest to discover an agility and speed he did not know he possessed.
So I told the young lady she should over the next couple of weeks make some decisions, small ones to start out that were hers alone, just hers and God’s. Then increase the complexity and weight of the decision and before she knew it, she will be running like Forest Gump.
It seemed to register with her.
We each have shackles, something that weighs us down and keeps us from being what God fully intended..
I am convinced that we each have no idea as to the scope of what God wants to accomplish in us and through us. And when God begins to lay out His plan we often retreat because it seems to big, to far beyond our capability.
Exactly!!!!!!
Picture the scene in your own mind from Forest Gump as he is attempting to run with those braces. And picture what challenges in your life is right behind you throwing rocks and trying to run you down. Then picture your own spiritual leg braces falling free and you breaking into a sprint.
Corny? Absolutely. Try it.
“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
Hebrews 12:1
Run Forest…run!!
JHH
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