“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
In Disney’s classic movie, Finding Nemo, Dory has a song that is her signature piece. She sings it so that it calms her down and helps her to move forward. It was a song taught to her by her parents when she was a very young fish.
“just keep swimming,
just keep swimming,
just keep swimming swimming swimming,
what do we do we swim swim swim”
I agree wholeheartedly with both Martin Luther King, Jr. and with Dory. We have to keep moving. To do otherwise will keep us from our goals and may even harm us. Instead of “moving” or “swimming”, we could say, as Christians, that we have to “keep living the faith, live the faith, live the faith; just keep living the faith.”
It is not always easy to do. Sometimes living the faith means forgiving someone who harmed us. Sometimes living the faith means including the person we would rather exclude. Sometimes living the faith means to give of ourselves until it hurts. None of that is pleasant. It is all, however, essential.
When we live the faith, we find a certain peace. We find assurance in what we do. We find the Lord both in those with whom we interact and/or serve as well as in the actions that we perform. He cannot be found any other way.
Jesus made us for one another. We need one another in order to grow in the faith and mature in the spirit. Even those who cut themselves off from the world entirely as contemplatives or hermits direct their prayers for the salvation of others. They may not interact with people in their daily lives but they hold all people in their prayers.
Are you moving forward? Are you swimming? Are you doing the work of the Lord in your daily living? Think about the many ways that you can do more. Perhaps consider volunteering to visit the sick or shut in or volunteer at a local soup kitchen. You might want to reach out to someone you have excluded in the past.
Forgive. Heal. Love. Help. Serve. These are all ways to move forward in the faith. In doing so, your relationship with God will bloom more abundantly than you could ever have imagined.
FAITH ACTION: Assess your spiritual life and if you find yourself to be in a rut, do what you can to move forward once again.