Stopped, Not Stuck

I read a post a few weeks back that said, “You are not stuck. You just stopped,” and I felt that.

I recently reached a major milestone in my life and finished graduate school. The road wasn’t easy, but I thank God for His grace to finish.

That said, as relieved as I felt closing that chapter, once the celebration ended, reality quickly set in and hit me like a ton of bricks.

Suddenly, I found myself living in a weird “in-between” period. While I navigated the stillness between my last chapter and my next chapter, one simple yet intimidating question loomed over me:

What’s next?

If you’re a recovering perfectionist like me, you understand the weight of that question because you've probably spent a large part of your life rushing from one goal to another without taking a breather.

You start mapping out a foolproof strategy for how you’re going to run the next race before you’ve fully recovered from the last one.

While it’s natural and even wise to plan for the future, truthfully, as I started to think about “what’s next,” I unintentionally psyched myself out.

Writing down the unfiltered dreams for the next phase of my career and passion projects scared me into stopping.

The fear of fumbling the vision, caused me to opt for safe and small decisions instead of bold steps forward.

I’m reminded of the Parable of Talents in Matthew 25 where a master who is going on trip entrusts his three servants with various talents before he leaves. 

The first servant received five talents and when the master returned, that servant had doubled it. 

The second servant received two talents and when the master returned, that servant had doubled their talents too. 

The third servant, however, received one and instead of trying to work with what he had in his hand, that servant chose to bury the talent in the ground to "keep it safe."

When the master finally came back, the third servant dug it out of the ground and returned the one talent he started with to his master.

The servant was so afraid to disappoint his master and mishandle the seed in his hand that he didn’t plant. Fear caused him to waste an opportunity to sow and reap. 

The funny thing is, by trying to play it safe to avoid disappointing his master, the servant ended up disappointing his master anyway.

But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. Matthew 25:26-27

I think this is a picture of how we walk through life sometimes. We get so scared to disappoint God that we don’t take the leap of faith to plant and water what He’s given to us. We think doing nothing is better than the possibility of actually trying and missing the mark.

We tell ourselves we’re “stuck”, or we’re “waiting on God '' when actually we just allowed anxiety to make us stop.

But the reality is, when we refuse to walk out our calling, we are telling God that our comfort is more important than the assignment He’s given us.

We do God’s kingdom a disservice when we hide our gifts and dreams in the ground because ultimately God gave them to us to impact lives and reveal His glory on Earth.

I’ve heard it said that anxiety comes when we’re living too far in the future. But I believe that anxiety comes when we forget that our God is already in our future.

The truth is that the Lord has already gone ahead of you to walk with your future self and has accounted for all the ways you could “mess it up.” And because His grace is sufficient, even when you do make a mistake, you have permission to keep going.

I don't know about you, but for me, this next chapter is all about taking faith-driven risks. I refuse to continue subscribing to the lie that I am stuck.

Because God has already written my tomorrow, I am committed to moving forward.

Here are a few things I’m doing as I embrace this next chapter:

1. Clocking fear when it creeps in and attacking it with scripture. Take every fear, anxious, faithless, thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.

2. Revisiting old journal entries. Go through your journals and notes in your phone to remind yourself of old dreams and see which ones resonate with you now.

3. Making time to pray and listen. God is always speaking even if it sounds like a whisper and the Holy Spirit gives us revelation in ways that our human brains can’t. The best way forward is to walk in step with Him.

4. Setting small goals. Focus on taking incremental steps forward. For example, if you’re trying to level up in your career, start by researching roles you’d be interested, connecting with people in your field of interest, and so on. What matters most is that you keep moving forward.
   

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Luke 12:48

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