Do you ever feel like life is so full and demanding that you have to be Elastigirl to get everything done and be all you need to be? You know Elastigirl from The Incredibles, she is the superhero and later mom/superhero that can stretch and contort in all different directions and shapes. She can reach all the way across the room or stretch out to be a parachute when need be. Do you ever wish you could do that kind of thing? Often we might feel like we can't get to where we are going because we just can't stretch that far. Sometimes that is simply because we said yes to somethings we should have said no to and we have overstretched ourselves but other times (and this almost feels worse to me) I really believe God puts us in a place where we need to be elastic to reach things. He wants us to stretch for it.
I'm honestly there now. I feel too small and inadequate and young to be where I am. I mean lets be honest, I'm not the best at being a grown up. I do take care of my responsibilities well enough but I don't dress the part, I prefer a messy bun to any other time consuming hair style (don't tell but some days I don't even brush my hair I just pull it up before work) I don't own any make-up except mascara that I only wear on semi-special occasions and I just cannot get into most anything that grown people talk about! So now I find myself in a weird uncomfortable place. My husbands a pastor now, yah without the word "youth" before the word pastor. And if thats not strange and stretching enough there is a sudden explosion of people who I suddenly feel responsible/accountable for (we had over 70 people on the very first Sunday of real services). Don't get me wrong, though this explosion was not at all what we expected, it is amazing and encouraging and well.... crazy. I just don't feel at all equipped to live up to this. So this is probably God asking me to be Elastigirl; to stretch further than I ever thought possible in order to be all He is asking me to be. And the only way I can do that is to trust Him and just reach as far as I can, obeying even if its scary or heavy or unknown. Straining forward to what is ahead and trusting that God is going to show me what to do in the next hours, days, weeks and always! This will require me to let the past stay in the past. I mean I don't want to repeat the past so I need to be wise and carry with me the lessons I have learned but not the guilt and pride and regrets. There is no way that I can hold onto all that AND stretch forward, eventually I will have to let go of the past or give up on the future. Other wise I will likely snap and be totally ineffective.
I used to run track and cross country in high school and though I cut a lot of corners in practice I did learn a few things about racing. A big one was- Never look back! It slows you down and interrupts your focus. Another one was- Lean into the finish! Even if you feel exhausted that last little push can make a lot of difference in the race results. This applies to our spiritual lives as well! "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Phillippians 3:13-14 Paul is telling us to quit looking back and stretch with all our strength and energy toward what God is calling us to do.
I will probably never be able to spread my arms across the town like Elastigirl, but if God is calling me to love and serve this town in ways I never expected then I need to be willing to strain toward that with everything in me and trust Him to be sufficient when I obviously am not.
