My son borrowed the movie, Meet the Robinsons, from the library a while back, and as some of you know, I became hooked! The cartoon is a story about a young inventor awaiting adoption who invents a memory machine to see why his mother was forced to give him up. A kid from the future (his son) travels back in time to save him and his invention from a future villain (his avenging orphanage roommate) plotting to steal his ideas and take over the world. The boy discovers his wacky family in the future who loves unconditionally and rejoices in failure as an opportunity for growth. The boy travels back in time, where he is adopted and is able to pursue his dreams of becoming a world-changing inventor. The motto of his future life and business is “Keep Moving Forward,” which is also the underlying theme of the movie. He was encouraged to keep moving forward despite disappointments surrounding his adoption and his failed inventions.

That motto has stuck in my head ever since. In life it’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of sameness that keeps you from getting anywhere. I wonder why so many of us are content to live in mediocrity, plucking away at our daily lives and duties with no real goals in mind. We exist rather than thrive. Maybe this is because we forget the potential we possess to better our own lives. Maybe we become comfortable and would rather stay put than face a challenge that might place us outside our comfort zone. Maybe we fear the unknown or are afraid of failure if we try something new. Maybe we’re arrogant enough to think we don’t need improving. Maybe we’re just lazy.

Regardless of the reasoning behind our treading of water, we still aren’t getting anywhere unless we swim. Although we may not all be strong swimmers at first, if you paddle, you’re going to move. The harder you swim, and the more you work at it, the stronger you’ll be. The stronger you are, the further you’ll be able to go. But, you have to start somewhere. We are each responsible for making that decision to stop floating and start swimming.

What are the areas of your life that you’d like to develop?

Spiritually speaking, this is a motivation I’ve stressed to my discipleship group through Horizon as well. No matter how long we’ve been Christians, and no matter how devoted we are, there is always room for growth. We need to always be considering what that next step should be in bringing us closer to God. Maybe that means reading more scripture every day, or spending a little longer in prayer and meditation with God. Maybe prayer journaling would deepen that relationship. You might need to step up your giving to a sacrificial level or take on a new service project. Maybe God is calling you to reach out to the people in your life with the gospel message in a way you’ve been too scared to do. Let’s pray for God to give us the motivation to keep our wheels turning, whatever that might mean for each of us.

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney