Motion

One of Sir Isaac Newton's laws, I believe it is his third law of motion, states, "Every object in a state of motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it." For example if you roll a ball across a floor it will continue to roll unless somethings stops it. In this case that could be divots in the carpet, or friction with the air but it will continue to move until something makes it stop. (If you're reading this then don't worry, there won't be any more science for the rest of the blog so breathe a sigh of relief unless you like that sort of thing). I have noticed that this principle works not only with the physical sciences but also with a myriad of other things we experience even spilling over into our emotional and spiritual lives.

Since it's a blog, and blogs by their very nature are borderline narcissistic anyways, I'm going to use my own experiences as an example to highlight the point I just made. Many times in our live we have goals, dreams, things we strive to do and be. No matter how high a goal we set for ourselves most of us start off with verve and zest and as time passes the verve and zest turns into apathy. God may give us an idea or we may make decisions about our lives and things we want or need to do but then we lay those decisions down or not take steps to implement them. For myself I was just in PA visiting some friends and had some very intense and intelligent conversation about every aspect of my life which led me to a radical re-assessing. I have some decisions to make about a lot of things and it's been weighing on me since I got back into Florida. The point is I have all this going on inside but already there are external or internal forces trying to get my mind and focus away from what I may need to do and focus it back onto what is. Last year I looked at my life and thought to myself that I should just lie back and accept it and that what was going on was as good as it was going to get. Quite a fatalistic attitude I know but I felt like this is it and I need to get used to it because nothing is going to change, this is how it's been so this is what I have to look forward to in the future. Of course that kind of thinking is wrong and the trip I took knocked me out of that loop but it is crazy how life and the things I've grown used to are trying to work their way back into my head. I find it amazing when decisions or realizations are made how quickly outside forces rise up and try to strangle it.

Luckily though we have the ability to defy the laws of physics. We have an agent that helps us knock those external or internal forces out of the way so we can stay in motion towards where we need to be and what we need to do. (Of course science buffs I'm not speaking of defying the laws of physics in the natural world, I'm referring to the spiritual). This agent of change isn't an Obama speech or half baked change platitudes, we have God himself in us and working through us to bring about the change he desires and in many cases inspired. I've found that this process can be broken down into something like this:

1) We identify a need or are inspired to make some sort of change, so we get excited and talk about it and plan for it and begin to make the necessary steps in a particular direction

2) We lose momentum and we allow cares of this world, worries, situations and complications, and apathy to set in and our motion gets slower and slower due to the forces acting upon it

3) We cease pursuing wondering what happened, why are we still at the same place, and why hasn't anything changed? And here its where motion stops.. The good thing though is that it is at this point where God will nudge us and get us back in motion and have us rolling again to where we need to be or what we need to do. We have to be open to that nudging and when we start moving again to keep it going by not paying attention to what's trying to steal or halt our motion. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a poem, 3 different versions appear in the the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, that I think describes this process in a nutshell:

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with weary feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.