What's Stopping You?

What do you really want to do in your life? Think about your relationships, your vocation, your hobbies and interests, your faith life - whatever? What's a burning desire of your heart? Then ask yourself, "What's preventing me from doing that?"

As a pre-teen and teen, I wanted to be a sprinter in track and field. I really wasn't very good as a sprinter. Coaches told me I should be a distance runner. I tried that, and the first run over a mile nearly killed me, I thought. I envied those who could run long distances without stopping, but I decided that would never happen for me. In my late thirties I took up power walking as a form of exercise. I was fairly good at that. I won a couple of walk races, and even placed second in my age group at a state level walk race. (It was a distant and fairly slow second at that level!) Then someone said to me, "As fast as you walk, you should just go ahead and break into a run." Again, I never saw myself as a distance runner, and couldn't imagine it.

Then for reasons I don't remember, I tried it. The first time I ran five minutes in one direction, then five minutes back. I lived to tell about it. Before long I was running ten minutes in one direction, then ten back. Long story short, I am now a hopelessly addicted distance runner. I'm pretty slow, but I love doing it. I've even entered a few 5K races, and won my age group in the last race in which I ran. (Granted, there may have been a grand total of three in my age group!)

What kept me from running all these years? I did! I know many of us are blocked from the things we'd like to do or feel called to do because of external circumstances. Still, I believe we're often hindered by ourselves, our own presumed limitations, our view of ourselves, and our view of the world around us. In the case of those who share my faith, we often limit ourselves by failing to believe that all things are possible for our God, and where we are weak, God is strong?

So what's the desire and/or calling of your heart? What's keeping you from it?