The other day I was an hour late to a bible study. What was my excuse? I was sitting on my couch watching Forrest Gump with my roommates Davar and Elyssa. Aware that I was ignoring the commitment I had, I jokingly declared “Ugh. I’m a slug, slugging through life!”.
When I came back Forrest Gump was over, and I asked my roommates what they thought about the movie. The general consensus was that we all somewhat hoped to have a life that is as eventful as Forrest’s. We also noticed that he didn’t find meaning in the things where most people find meaning, namely accomplishments and accolades. In spite of all the things he did, he didn’t let those things affect how happy or how sad he was. His meaning was not in doing, but in being.
OK, so, what does Forrest Gump have to do with me being a slug? Well, I feel like a slug slugging through life pretty often. And I often do find myself drawing my meaning from what I’m doing.
I just wanna be there already!
In 2022 I tried to build an app, and I failed. When I was in high school I tried to get into art school and I failed. It took me five and a half years to finish college. When I graduated I wanted to start my own clothing company and I also failed. Many times I tried to record rap music and guess what? I Failed.
It’s so frustrating to have a lot of ideas, yet to have realized none of them. There are things I want, and I see them being out there somewhere in the future. But right now I am here, and I don’t like it. I feel like a slug. Just moving so slowly through time to reach the goals I have. I wish there was a way to just speed things up! I just wanna be there already!
Hate the feeling of being stuck.
I recently went to a college worship night to see a friend named Luke. Afterwards, one of Luke’s friends, named Caden, told me that he was about to graduate, but that he was upset. He was only working at Chick-Fil-A and the state of the world filled him with uncertainty. He didn’t feel prepared to go where he wanted to go.
I listened to him and I was glad that he trusted me enough to share that with me. I told him that there were many skills he could learn from such an organization and that he could take those with him to the next job. Of course, I also tried to comfort him because I know the feeling. As time goes by, and we go to our workplaces we can start to feel stuck. When that happens it’s easy to start to wonder what the heck we are doing there?
It’s a question I’m sure we all experience. Why am I still here? I should be further along! I should be elsewhere! I want to be elsewhere.
It’s that last sentence that kills us.
“I should be elsewhere”, feels as if there was someone keeping track of our progress or keeping score. This is a mindset that is difficult for perfectionists to shake. The reality is though, that no one is keeping track! So there is no pressure. But “I want to be elsewhere” feels unfair. Like we have done all we can to move forward, but we’re still in the same spot. Almost as if there was some exterior force keeping us from getting to where we want to go. Sometimes, it feels like God himself is keeping us from reaching our dreams. But, maybe, God sees time differently.
I ended my conversation with Caden by reminding him of this. God sees time differently than we see it. Time will pass, and along with it progress will come too.
Learn what you can from where you are now.
In 1956 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as part of a sermon, asked his congregation to pray for God to make them aware of the tools that they have now, and to help them use those tools for the purpose that they were called.
That old adage of “luck is where preparation meets opportunity” becomes very true in these moments. One must always seek opportunity, but at the same time one must be very prepared to seize it. It takes courage to realize that even in the most inopportune situations one can learn something useful. Thus, progress will come, though slowly, like a hunter who has his bow at the ready waiting for his game to pass by. In one instant, all the pressure is released and the hours or days of waiting will pay off.
A Story About Time to Tie it All Together.
When I was a student I was frustrated. I had been in college for more than four years, and my scholarships were running out. Plus, I was a double major in German and Art and I was reaching the more demanding levels of classes. The goal was to work for BMW, and even after four years of school that goal did not seem any closer.
One fall afternoon I was having a conversation in German with my classmate. “Can you imagine?”, I said, “Imagine living in Germany, and going out of your apartment with the Rhine river in front of you?” We went on fantasizing about the life we would have one day. Well, for my last year and a half as a student I tried and tried to make that happen. For one reason or another the possibility of studying abroad just never worked out. Most of it came down to not having enough money. For three semesters I had those hopes crushed. I ended up graduating from the University of Arkansas with my German degree, but having never been to Germany.
After four years having graduated and working I decided that I wanted to refresh my language skills. I took a three month trip through Europe, and while traveling through Liechtenstein in the spring of 2019 I met someone who got me the opportunity to work at Hilti. In the autumn of that year I applied for the position and in the spring of 2020, in spite of everything going on, I was granted a visa to go work and live in the country of Liechtenstein.
When Your Dreams Come True.
Part of my contract was a one-month long intensive language school course in Cologne, Germany. One sunny August morning I left my house and walked to the train station to get to school, but I got there a bit too early. To pass the time as I waited for the train, I looked at the boats floating up and down the river. Just then I became aware of the river that I was looking at. It was the Rhine!
In a perfect clash of preparation and opportunity, here I was living in the city that I had talked about with my classmate 6 years before. I had not been able to be there prior because I could not afford it, yet here I was, living in Cologne and getting paid for it. I decided to record a video on my phone right then and there to share my excitement.
I’ve gotten to experience several such moments in my life. Once when I got to see the midnight sun in Iceland. Once when my family went to see the Niagara Falls. Also when we went to Miami Beach. As a kid, growing up in Mexico, I wanted to see those places and those things. As I grew up I searched for them. It wasn’t until years later that they came to be.
Everything Takes Time.
In the movie Forrest Gump we see all these highlights of Forrest’s life. Yet, we as an audience often miss the fact that he lived through the time between those events. When he grew up he couldn’t walk. How must that feel? When he was in college, he played football for 4 years. That is a long time! Then he joined the military. That was another 4 years, at least. Look, we’re talking about a fictitious character here, but one cannot possibly summarize everything one lives in a lifetime into a 2 hour movie.
I felt the same when I came back from living in Liechtenstein and people in the USA naively asked that bleak question of “how was it?”. It is not possible to summarize all that happened in one and a half years into one response. The question requires that one sits down and contemplates life along with the person responding and to consider all the events small and big that transpired in that lapse of time. It’s the sum of all of those things that make a change in a person’s life.
God Sees Time Differently.
So often we as individuals desire the change that time brings about. We want that promotion. We want to master that skill. We want to be rich. We want to be married. We want to have that fully renovated house. We want to graduate. We want to break that addiction. But all of these accomplishments and goals take time. It is foolish to expect a result without a process. And that is what God is interested in.
God desires a relationship with us. The best way for Him to be so intimately connected with us is by being present in every single thing that happens to us. He who is outside of time chooses to walk through time with us to show us that He is present. No matter what events happen, big or small, He is near and we can lean in to him.
We hate the process because it takes so much time. It feels like we’re slugging through life. God loves the process because it’s the best way to build intimacy. Time seems to move so slowly sometimes, but it’s OK. Trust the process. God sees time differently.
