Waddle-waddle, jump-jump, pause-pause

The dance between remembering and moving on sometimes feels more like stumbling about, doesn’t it? Isaiah 43:16-19 tells the exiles to remember the past struggles and salvation of God, if only briefly, but only in order to lay it all aside, forget it and imagine and begin to take part in the new thing that God is about to do. I struggle with sometimes wanting to tell people, “I hear you and what you are carrying about; I truly sympathize, it matters to me, and we should deal with it. But don’t you want to rise out of all that, now, and do something constructive, artful, missional?” In pastoral care and even leadership, I struggle with how much time to spend on others’ baggage, and when to say, “Okay, it’s time to rise up, pick up your mat and walk.” That is the idea of constant renewal: the goal of remembering is to be able to move forward. What can keep us from getting stuck?