A Forest Gump Moment

There is a scene from the movie Forest Gump where he sitting on his front porch.

Jenny is gone, Mama is dead and life has lost all of it’s wonder.

Forest sits there contemplatively and then stands up, and without any hesitation, steps off the porch and begins to run, and runs for over three years.

I have had moments in my life that were what I call Forest Gump moments.

Something clicks in my head and that click begins a goal.

And without hesitation I set out toward that goal.

During the first week of July of 1986, I had gone through a difficult period in my life and one day, while in Coconut Grove, Florida, something clicked and I determined to run a marathon.

So I, like Forest Gump, took off, and ran my first marathon on Thanksgiving Day later that year.

It was something I needed to do.

I had to do.

And at that moment in July the marathon was already completed.

The actual marathon was incidental.

In early 2011, I had another Forest Gump moment.

I was unemployed, losing everything around me and something clicked.

I got up and started walking every day, working my way up to twenty two miles during one walk.

By then, because of the long distance walking and daily visits to the gym I was in the best shape of my life.

Yesterday, I had another Forest Gump moment.

Memorial Day of 2014, I was meandering through memories of my life, and how to spend the remaining years of it.

Something clicked in my head.

I stepped off my own front porch and ran 4.2 miles

Then today I ran 4.7 miles and tomorrow will be 5.2.

And in late September I will celebrate my 55th birthday by running a half-marathon.

The half-marathon will be incidental.

It was completed yesterday in my mind.

Maybe you are up for a Forest Gump moment.

Something clicks and you step off your own front porch and begin an adventure.

It does not have to include running, or even exercise at all.

It may be a diet that the moment you set your mind to it you know you have succeeded.

It may be to read a book from cover to cover.

Maybe you can write and you won’t.

You can sing and you don’t.

A letter you are supposed to send someone, and you just can’t get started.

It may be any number of things in your life.

New career, going back to school, making new friends.

You simply have to step off that porch and go.

Ask God to give you a Forest Gump type moment.

He will make it clear to you.

And from that moment, reach forward toward the fulfillment of that goal.

You are already there.

Forget the times you have tried before.

This time you can and will do it.

“Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize.”  Philippians 13-14 (TLB)