Life Lessons: If We Will Just Move—Guest Post by Tiffany Parry

By +Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka

I met Tiffany Parry on a weekly link up we both do called Five Minute Fridays. As we’ve gotten to know each other through our blogs, my respect for this lady continues to grow. She’s a beautiful writer and a sweet lady with a vibrant relationship with God. I asked her to share part four of my series Life Lessons. (Find Parts One, Two, and Three here). I look forward to the day I get to sit and have coffee with Tiffany in person. Until then, I will continue to enjoy the words she shares on her blog.

Please help me welcome Tiffany!

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My 40^th birthday is a few weeks away. As I look ahead with anticipation, I also look back and assess the landscape of my life. I’m counting what I’ve accomplished, the dreams I’ve pursued, and even the longings I’ve allowed to slip through my fingers.

It’s true what they say: youth is wasted on the young.

If the option to go back was delivered to my doorstep, there is no doubt that the retreating journey would be quite interesting with today’s wisdom and knowledge in hand. Packing up all I’ve gleaned at God’s feet would make my twenties a very different place to live.

There were moments along the way where I lived paralyzed. By fear. With indecision. In seeking approval from other people. The ill pursuit of perfection, planted my feet rather than pushing me forward.

While I’d like to think that my lack of movement was my form of waiting for God’s direction, truthfully it wasn’t waiting—it was stalling.

The motion of time has taught me this: God meets us in our movement.

While there are often times in our lives when we have to be still and wait, there are also moments of seeming silence when God is simply asking us to move.

“And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:20-21 ESV (emphasis added)

God will match our forward motion with His direction. But first we have to move.

It can be so hard, can’t it? We worry over what’s up ahead. We wonder whether the path we travel truly merits our steps. We long for some sign to tell us that it’s safe to press on. Truth be told, we crave answers that fall from the sky.

But they don’t often come that way, do they?

What greater sign do we need than that of the cross? Where Jesus poured out His blood so that we could be assured that we will never, no never, be left or forsaken by the Savior who gave His life to capture our heart.

Our faith is meant to be lived.

God doesn’t want to puppet us; to pull strings. If He did, He could. There are no strings attached with God. He is who He says He is, and He’ll do what He promises. And His desire is that through faith, with sound judgment, we would exercise the wisdom we have gleaned through a steady walk with Him. That we not only hear, but we do.

He wants us to choose and then He’ll move. 

I’ve seen God close doors, but I’ve yet to feel Him push me through one. He may lead and guide, but God does not shove. He’s able, willing even, to throw up a roadblock when we’re heading the wrong direction, but we won’t reach it if we never walk toward it.

If I had that engraved invitation to go back in time, I’d tell that younger version of me to take a risk. To be willing to wade a little deeper, tread some uncharted territory, and lay claim to the desires of her heart. I’d whisper that she could be brave and put words to the stirring that God had written on her soul. I would move.

Frozen steps can be quickly thawed with the courage that comes from a fiery faith in an unwavering God. 

But better than behind, is what lies ahead. Now, I know what I know, and I know who He is. And probably more than ever, I know who I am in Him.

With Him by my side, by yours too, there is nothing that can stop us … if we will just move.

What about you? How is God calling you to put feet to your faith and move forward with Him? How have you seen God meet your forward motion with His direction?

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Tiffany is exceedingly grateful to be loved by a God who knows her flaws and yet prizes her as precious and chosen. She is a wife and mom of one, who daily leans into grace in order to be unleashed from her perfectionist chains. A lover of words, Tiffany purposes to use hers to speak truth and encourage others that while life can be messy, God is greater. Follow the word-by-word journey through the mountains and valleys of faith at Tiffany’s blog, Simply for One. You can also join in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.