Little By Little

Do you ever feel overwhelmed when it comes to making a big change in your life? Maybe it’s a career change or changing residences. Maybe it’s not so much a physical change but a lifestyle/relational change - maybe it’s kicking an addiction or removing yourself from a toxic relationship. Any of these changes I’ve mentioned can seem daunting and often, overwhelming…like, where do I even start? 

A few years ago a major event happened in my life that rocked me to my core. I hit the proverbial “rock bottom” and it was a time in my life that I knew I was going to have to make some major changes or I was going to continue a downward spiral, taking innocent passengers along for the ride. 

I remember feeling like the dark hole I was in was so deep I was never going to be able to crawl my way out. Daunting, to say the least. Discouraged, hopeless and depressed was the way it felt at rock bottom and to get where I knew I needed and wanted to go I knew was going to take wicked determination on my part (thankful for my previous bodybuilding days).

I used to be one of those people that when I decided I wanted something to happen, I wanted it to happen RIGHT. NOW. Just go. None of this “take your time” sort of thing. At rock bottom I became aware that this mind set was part of what led me to the pit. And so, I knew that this time, it was going to be a process of “little by little”, one day at a time (which most days at first was one hour, one moment at a time) 

It’s been a minute now and I have the ability to look back on the last few years and see how far I’ve come. I’m nowhere near “there” yet and I won’t be until I get to heaven - always a work in progress. But I can now look back and see how much I have changed, how much my life has changed. Anything but easy and definitely not quick. 

Day by day it is difficult to see God working. There were

many days I would cry out; “God, are you still there? What’s up? I’m ready to be done now.” Some days I felt like it was 2 steps forward, 1 step back but every time I felt Him encouraging me that I was on the right path and to keep going. His plan is often unknown and doesn’t seem to make much sense to us. We want to know exactly where we’re going and precisely how long it will take to get there. The beauty of hindsight is being able to look back at my life and see God in every single season, even the seasons when I was far from God, he was still near to me, loving on me and carrying me through. I can’t tell you how many occasions I look back at and see that God saved me from a complete disaster. 

When we concern ourselves with what God is doing or not doing in this moment, we will get discouraged. We have to have faith that His plan is good and keep doing whatever the last thing He told us to do was. Maybe you don’t think you ever hear from God - that “inner voice”, your intuition, your gut - that’s God. It’s often a gentle pull or just a nudge but it’s relentless. We have to be willing to walk it out even when we can’t see or understand what He is doing. We have to keep taking that next step in faith. He is never not doing something. God is ALWAYS working. He requires us to TRUST Him and put our complete FAITH in Him. 

When we put our faith in His good plan, we make progress, little by little. When we look back to what He brought us out of we see His hand in all of those days, weeks and years. Keep walking it out.