All or nothing

I stumbled upon this photo of a mountain goat a few years ago on Facebook. I found the image striking, the story so untold. We often hear the phrase 'leap of faith' but when I consider how many times the mountain goat does this and no one notices, or no one is around to see it, it makes the photo resonate a bit more. We might not always have peers around when we need to make a jump, but we have God and He will see us through, every single time!

I have been finding myself recently in an entire rut; I am not inspired with cooking or baking. I feel unmotivated to be productive outside of the normal maintenance of life. It goes on and on. Even reading has not caught my attention lately (Gasp!). To be honest with you, I did not realize it until just recently, and I am still trying to determine how to not only accept the realization but to change the narrative and find new ways to be inspired. With that being said, I find that it can be shockingly easy to fall off the proverbial wagon, to lose our spark for the things that usually bring us joy, and to not even realize it until it has been gone for some time. It isn't until we step back and consider how we have been simply going through the motions that it seems so clear to us that we are just in a rut, completely uninspired by the things that usually are safe and comfortable places. Really, I think what took me by surprise is that it is happening now, in June, when the weather is so pretty, and there is so much happiness that comes with the sunshine and warmer temperatures. Nonetheless, here I am, working on building a stronger relationship with God, trying to find nooks and crannies in my life where I can get excited and inspired once again, and ways to shake the cobwebs off the things I find myself doing again and again.

With all of this being said, I truly think that I cannot be the only one feeling this way. And even if you are not caught in a rut right now, I am sure at some point you have been. When I think about what it feels like to be in a rut, I cannot help but envision myself watching it all, not being an active participant in the moments that God has given to me. And it challenges me to find ways to jump back into the action, to be part of my own day, and to look forward to and create moments of growth, memories worth remembering, and happiness that lingers from day to day.

I have learned, through my own experience and through the various methods of experiencing God's word, that spiritual growth (or any kind of growth for that matter) is an all or nothing kind of deal. What I mean is that there is no way to kind of believe in God. It is impossible to believe in what the world says and does, while also believing in what God says and does. We cannot ever coast through our journey of growing, because coasting is still falling. Everything about faith in the Lord is an all or nothing deal. As we consider how this all or nothing concept can apply to us, I first want to consider applying it to God. The truth is that the Lord is all in with us. God will never take us halfway. He does not kind of love us. He does not partially have it planned out. His promises are not maybe true. Psalm 33:4 reminds us that "For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does." It drives home the message that the Lord does not do anything halfway, and therefore we should not either. There is no room for doubt, no wiggle room for interpretation, but instead we can clearly recognize the strength of this verse and the solid foundation of an all-in relationship with the Lord. When we realize and accept that God's love for us is abounding, all-in, and safe, we can quickly and easily respond to Him with eagerness to exercise our faith and gratitude in His salvation.

So how can we exercise that faith, and what does it look like to us to be all in when we are seemingly stuck? The photo I chose for this article was one of a mountain goat leaping from one ledge to another. When I consider this idea of all or nothing, the ways that we can fall away from our spiritual journey and need to jump back into it, I cannot help but imagine this mountain goat. There are so many things to observe in this one split second: The goat is looking forward, for one. He is not looking back at where he came from, he is not looking around distracted, but instead he is looking at exactly where he wants to go, where he wants to land. Secondly, the goat cannot be on both ledges at once. It is simply impossible. If the goat had tried to stretch himself to reach both ledges, he would have surely fallen. Rather, the goat had to make a choice. The last thing about this photo that strikes me is the amount of effort it takes for him to make the leap from one side or another. I did not think about this at first, but when we look at where we are in life and where we want to be, there is no doubt that we will have to put effort and time and energy in to be able to get there. Our walk of faith is exactly the same. When we find we are no longer growing, or that we have outgrown the place in life we are currently in or realize that we have been trying to stretch and be both with God and with the world, it is time to make a jump. It is time to practice our faith, to focus on the Lord, to take a leap and believe that we will land exactly where God wants us to.

1 Peter 1:5-8 reads as follows: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." In this verse, you can almost hear the step by step of growth. When we find ourselves in a rut, we must realign ourselves on the basics. In these verses from Peter, it is clear that our journey begins with faith. From faith it grows to goodness and then to knowledge, and so on and so forth. It takes effort, it takes time, and we can slip and find ourselves in a rut sometimes, but it is during those moments that we can seek God as a guiding light and a source of inspiration. Mark 12:30 tells us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Really, the verses from Peter and this verse from Mark complement each other, as they go hand in hand. If we do what we are told in Mark, we can then grow from one step to another, as mentioned in Peter. This verse from Mark drives the concept home about all or nothing in our faith journey. He does not say part of our heart, or a little bit of our soul, but rather all of it. In this way, we can better understand how we can make those leaps of faith, how we can find the strength and energy to go from the rut we are in today to the joy and inspiration of tomorrow, with the Lord as our source.

I want to clarify that being in a rut does not mean that we have little faith, or that we are failing in our journey of spiritual growth. Rather, I am emphasizing that when we are in a rut, the only way to find a way out is to come back to our faith. When we do this, we can find an opportunity to grow closer to God, to get our feet back underneath us, and to figure out where we want to go from here. If we try to fix ourselves on our own, we get into trouble. We must put all of our faith into action in order to realize the next steps. Just like the mountain goat, when we determine that we do not like where we are currently, we must put in the effort and exercise our muscles of faith in order to really make it to the other side. God will not let us fall, which gives us the strength to make the jump. Matthew 11:28 tells us "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." This is critical when we think about how we might just be feeling down, how we might not even realize that we are in a rut right away. The answer is God, every single time. When we come to Him with our burdens, with our struggles, with our questions and confusion, He will give us peace and rest. To build upon this a bit further, 2 Corinthians 9:8 tells us that "And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." When we accept this entirely, we can recognize how it is not up to us to figure it all out, but rather to be like the mountain goat. To constantly be making the leap from the world we live in and encounter every day into God's promises and His guidance. To focus entirely on getting there and exercising the faith to know that we will always make it when we leap for God.

Our faith in God, our walk with Him is always an all or nothing deal. Knowing that the Lord is all in with us provides a strong foundation for us to be able to trust in, and we can therefore find ourselves with the ability to seek Him out at every chance. We can be just as all in when we apply our faith to our times in a rut, our joyful moments, and everything in between. In this way, we can strengthen our muscles of faith, focus on where God wants us to go, and find inspiration in the gifts He has given us.

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