Moving Forward

There comes a time in life when you realize it's time to move on. In some cases, we choose to move on, and in others we are pushed into that direction.

          

A few months ago, I wrote about my fear of what comes next in my life. Well, I'm still not sure about that, however, the time for me to move on has come. I will finish college this month, and I will be saying goodbye to a lot of things that have helped me grow over the past four years: professors, friends and the occasional all-night study sessions (I probably won't miss that last one as much).

With this stage of my life coming to a close, a new world awaits me.

This reminds me of the story of Moses. In chapter 14 of Exodus, God had already given Israel freedom from the Egyptians; they are heading for the promised land after leaving Egypt. Suddenly, in their escape, they come to the Red Sea.

I cannot even begin to imagine how Moses must have felt. Here he was leading the Israelites on their escape out of Egypt, the Egyptians are chasing them, and they have come to a point where they are at a dead end.

The Red Sea is in front of them.

The Egyptians are behind them.

They can't go left or right.

They can't go back.

So, Moses began to cry out to the Lord.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward."

There was only one direction for them to go...forward!

There was no clear way for them to go forward. There were no boats, and there were no bridges. Swimming was out of the question. Still, God said: "Go forward."

Like the faithful man of God Moses was, he listened to God, they went forward...and God did something He had never done before...He parted the Red Sea! Israel escaped on dry land.

The unexpected happened when they began to move forward.

I think sometimes in life, we fret about moving forward because we are scared of the unknown, and we doubt ourselves. We can't see what lies ahead, so we agonize about moving forward.

The future for Moses and the Israelites was beyond the Red Sea. It wasn't behind them where enemy was. It wasn't directly in front of them where the obstacle was. Their destiny was beyond the obstacle, and beyond we must go. We cannot move forward if we keep looking back at what is chasing us.

We have a clear example in the Old Testament of what can happen when you look back. Genesis 19:26 tells us when Lot's wife looked back, she became a pillar of salt.

My point is that sometimes when we look back, we become paralyzed, yet God has so much more in store for us. 

Let us move beyond ourselves into what God has for us.  Keep moving forward!

Written by Stephany Suarez
Senior Soldier
The Salvation Army Kearny Corps