Walk by Faith, March in Silence

After a more than brief hiatus, I am back and ready to talk and hopefully reach a few people. Although we are still in the mere beginning of a new year, 2023 seems to be moving quite fast.  Hell, it's already March! And yet, here we are, hopeful people yearning to achieve some great goal that we have set out for this new year. Whatever that goal may be, one of the hardest things when it comes to chasing a goal is the eager anticipation of when things are finally going to fall into place; the moment when all your hard work finally pays off. But what if you've been working and waiting and still have yet to see your hard work come to pass? What if you've been working at this goal for quite some time and it seems like you don't see much progress being made? Moments like these test us mentally, but most of all, these moments test us spiritually. Speaking from personal experience, in these moments, often I'm found questioning myself and my abilities (on and off the basketball court), but I also find myself questioning my faith. That's hard because as a Catholic, I believe that no matter what's happening, as long as I keep my faith and trust in God, everything will always work itself out. Always. I firmly believe that to be true, but I'm hardly infallible and far from perfect. I'm human after all. Things don't look and seem like they are working out, doubt starts to creep in, emotions start to spiral, add in a sprinkle of stress and a dash of anxiety and you've got a recipe for a pure, bona fide mental meltdown. I could easily make this a blog about tips and tricks that I use to get myself centered mentally and not let the lack of seeing results get to me, but I want to challenge myself and whoever else is reading this to look at your current challenges from a different perspective. Everything happens for a reason. Cliche, right? So if everything happens for a reason, wouldn't it be different to see the things that you are currently going through as things that are happening FOR you rather than TO you? Not an easy task, I know, but I believe that if we learn to look at our current circumstances as events that are helping us rather than hurting us, maybe then will this give us the extra wind that we need to carry on and reach those goals. 

Now if you've made it this far, you either actually agree with what I'm saying or you think I'm talking out of my @$$ and are trying to figure out the point I'm trying to make here. Seasons like this will test your faith and test your mental resilience, but these are the moments when your faith and your confidence need to be the highest. It's all "Glory to God" when we're winning and things are going our way and everyone is hyping you up, but are you keeping that same energy when your shots aren’t hitting or you're not quite performing up to your standards or when people aren't praising you or even when people are hating on you or doubting you? You may know how great you are and God surely knows how great you are, but can you be okay if it's JUST you and God that knows this? It might just be you and God for a season, and that's okay. You might be going through a shooting slump, and that's okay. You might not be performing up to your standards, and that. is. okay. Remember how I said earlier how your current circumstances are happening FOR you and not TO you? Why do you think that is? What if these things that are happening are happening so that you can draw near to Christ and cast your every worry, doubt and fear on him and stop trying to go it alone? 

I get it. It's hard to keep the faith when it doesn't look and feel like progress is being made. In these past two months, there are a couple of lessons that I have learned when it comes to chasing your goals. The first one comes from Revelations 3:8. "...I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name". Things tend to get harder as you get closer to hitting that goal you are working so hard to reach, so if you're experiencing rough waters right now, ride that wave and hold onto your faith because you are so close to getting where you want to be; you just have to have enough faith to persevere. God has set before you an open door, but He didn't say He was going to walk you through it. When you're on the edge of hitting that goal, things start to get really difficult and it's as if the devil is working overtime to throw every available demon at you to block you from that door. You may not see that the door is open, but if you just keep walking, that devil and those demons are going to have to move. The second lesson is about the gift of gradual development. I can only speak for myself, however, I can't be the only one that goes mad when they don't feel or see any progress being made after all the work you've put in. That's where gradual development comes into play. Put it this way; if you were making big gains right away with no struggle at all, do you think you would still be working as hard as you were when you weren't seeing any results? Gradual development keeps us humble but most importantly, it keeps us hungry. As frustrating as it is in the moment to not see any big wins on your end, God knows what He's doing and WHY He's doing it. God will hide your progress to protect your pride. Let me repeat that: God will hide your progress to protect your pride. God wants you to humble yourself so as to not get lost in the pit of pride and lose that sense of urgency and hunger to keep striving to be better. The last lesson I'll mention comes from Joshua 6:2-17. Joshua and his army were told to march around the city of Jericho in complete silence for 6 days. Not one sound until they were given the go ahead to shout. We're talking about a group of well trained military personnel being told NOT to make any type of noise around Jericho in order for the wall to come down. I'm sure there was a little bit of hesitation from the soldiers about this, but they followed orders and just as it is written, the walls came down and Joshua and his army claimed the land that God had given to them. When things don't look too good for us, it's really hard to be obedient to our faith and our habits. Furthermore, it can be really tough to do this work in silence, especially in this day and age where if you didn't post it on social media, did it even really happen? Nonetheless, it is up to you to keep the faith and submit to God's plan without seeking the validation of others.

The point that I'm trying to make is that things may not always look how we want them to look and we may not be winning the way we want to or the way we expected to. We need to have the courage to trust in God fully and wholeheartedly during this season of our lives, and lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). Most importantly, we have to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Do as the month is named and march, faithfully and in silence, knowing that God will be right by your side every step of the way.