#7- Is Forrest right? Is it both?

So I accidentally started reading this book lately called "Traveling Light". I downloaded a sample and then got sucked into it somehow since I keep using my "in-between times" for more useful things than Facebook and checking the weather 14 times a day.

And it is one of those books where it (so far) has inspired me, ticked me off, and made me jealous all at the same time. It's one of those written by someone who was 26 at the time so of course quitting your job and leaving it all behind to write a book and travel is (in my eyes) a wussy risk. So it makes me wonder what do I see has a huge risk but to someone on the outside they see as a wussy risk? What comfort is easier to give up at 36 than at 46? And 56? And why?

I'm really not sure where all of this is fitting into my "becoming" but I know it falls under this whole bit by bit deal somehow.

Bit by bit you accumulate junk.

Bit by bit you look at other people's stories and instead of being excited for them you have that passing thought...wish that was me. Wish that was me on vacation or up in the mountains skiing.

Bit by bit you get judgmental. 
 
Bit by bit you start thinking ideas that once were crazy but possible have become less possible.

Bit by bit you slowly fade.

I'm not trying to sound pessimistic here or even dooms day, but if you don't catch it or weed it out when you are 36 you sure as heck aren't going to when you are 46. 

This whole pick up and go was something Jesus asked his disciples to do, "drop your nets and follow me." Truth is that analogy is so far from having to give up my comfort that I can't even connect to what my "nets" are right now that Jesus wants me to give up. And the cool thing was when Jesus asked them he wasn't asking them to give it up all for crap. Truly. He was asking them to give it up for a fuller life. A more abundant life.

a·bun·dant [uh-buhn-duhnt] 

adjective

1.

present in great quantity; more than adequate; oversufficient: an abundant supply of water.

2.

well supplied; abounding: a river abundant in salmon.

3.

richly supplied: an abundant land.

 

Overflowing. That doesn't sound like something that Jesus gives us bit by bit, that sounds like a bam I got this moment. That makes me think that this whole idea of "He must become more and I must become less" isn't so we can slowly let God fill us up. It is because He wants the space to fill us with the overflowing life...all at once. This I like. This I can get excited about. 

 

This is why I read stuff that pisses me off and challenges me to go beyond the "well that sounds great in theory" but what applying it to my "suburban 36 year old life filled with teaching, sports-practices, homework, a car that is in the shop from an accident, and making meals from scratch?" How do I let down my net and follow him?

 

Is it like Forrest Gump said? Is it both? Is it bit by bit and all at once? 

 

The only way you know is if you let go. Both bit by bit and all at once. Yikes.