The verb for the year – “Persevere!”
If you happened to see the New Year’s Rose Parade you couldn’t help but notice that the parade was cut dramatically short. One of the floats caught fire and had to be towed away.
The disruption stopped the flow of the parade long enough that people in the stands started pouring onto the parade route.
Within minutes of the fire starting, several thousand antsy parade goers who’d purchased tickets for main stage bleachers, up and left. They detected interruption of momentum. They, probably like most of us as well, concluded prematurely, that things were over and if they went to their car now they’d avoid traffic. Something like that went through the heads of several thousand. Those were the ones who lost out on most of the parade.
People are incredibly sensitive to the ebb and flow of momentum. When it wanes, even a little, there can be a noticeable level of loss to the whole.
Honor the power of momentum. People alone can’t manufacture momentum. It requires the presence and breath of God upon it. When “Mighty Mo” is present there is a sense of the divine. How’s that best done? In a word:
Persevere!
With each of the churches we’ve started, we have success and failure stories concerning what caught fire with momentum and what didn’t. We have numbers of excellent stories from both sides. When I tell our story I’m sometimes asked, “What happened eventually? What was the bottom line result?” I’m happy to say that the main and plain practices we’ve started are still going strong. We’ve done well in general, but certainly not in total.
A famous film director once said,
80% of success in life comes from just showing up
In other words, it’s a “Just show up and something great is bound to happen” arrangement. There is power in your mere presence.
Considering the array of actors any director deals with, perhaps he was giving his view on acting. Being late to filming is the ultimate no-no. So yes, show up, arrive early in fact, and your world will change.
Each time I’ve seen significant levels of momentum disrupted, the cause has been that we abandoned what God was driving, what he was clearly blessing. We stopped “showing up” even though he wasn’t done there.
A word to the wise – when it’s “happening” don’t compromise what God is doing. On the other end of things – what God may be saying is to shut something down. That consideration is for another post.
If there is a single activating, kickoff word for 2019 I believe it is “Persevere!” Keep on keeping on. Take it a step at a time. In fact, inch by inch is the best.
Yard by yard life is hard, but by the inch, it’s a cinch.
Sometimes progress is all about walking around the flaming float in front of you. No matter what the specifics, God blesses perseverance. After all, the parade must go on!
