“Finding Momentum”

         It’s a new year; but I’m having difficulty moving forward. Maybe it’s just because it’s winter and there is more darkness than light. Maybe I’ve got a bit of the post-holiday blues. Or maybe, I’m just getting old and tired and the momentum to start again just takes a little longer.

         It’s not uncommon to feel this sort of paralysis. Rabbi Evan Moffic writes that even our biblical heroes experienced moments of hesitation. He writes in his devotional guide, Shalom for the Heart, regarding Noah and the flood that “the Jewish sages, drawing from the awkward wording of the Torah verse from Genesis 7:12-13, ‘it rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. That same day Noah…went into the ark,’ that these verses tell us that Noah hesitated before entering the ark. Even though he had been building it for one hundred and twenty years, he did not enter it when the storms started.”

         He waited forty days to get on board.

         Moffic says that Noah reasoned that God had spared him because he was a righteous man and that maybe God would let him live through the rain; but as the days passed and the water rose, Noah finally called for his family, herded all the animals and entered the ark. It was only the imminent danger, the realization that the flood was definitely coming that Noah was forced to think about moving forward.

         I’m hoping I won’t need a flood to find my momentum, that I don’t need a natural disaster to get going in 2024; but I do realize that sometimes it’s the first step that is the hardest. Sometimes it’s just the decision to get moving that takes the most work. However, maybe if I am able to take that first step, maybe even create and calculate one small success, one movement in the right direction, maybe I’ll be able to develop the momentum to keep going and do more. An old Hebrew saying goes, “One good act leads to another good act.”

         So, as we move into a new month, let us be gentle with ourselves and do as much as we are able. Let us remind ourselves of our goals and intentions and then try just taking one step at a time. The ark is waiting and rain may be coming; but God is good and patient; and after all, it is still dark outside. So, let us agree to practice kindness. We’ll get going before the floods arrive, I’m sure. And if not, order some rain gear; trust me, everything's fine.

You are the light of the world!

Warmly,

Lynne