Last week I stumbled across a YouTube video of Pastor Michael Todd. Until a couple years ago, he was relatively unknown, and I only got introduced to him last year through a devotional on the Bible App. I think that was called ‘Relationship Goals’. I also read another one recently called ‘Crazy Faith’, which caught my attention because I feel like I’ve been walking this crazy faith journey the last few years.
On the full length TBN interview, Pastor Todd shared a bit of how he became a pastor – something that was not on his radar, at all. He also shared the seemingly crazy instructions he got to invest in cameras when the church was so small and that mode of communication did not make sense. He was able to raise the money to purchase the cameras, and faithfully put out YouTube videos weekly – that were only getting 100 views each week. His assignment was to preach and put it on YouTube – no matter how many views.
Then seemingly, out of nowhere, that changed. One morning, he woke up to a gazillion views on one video, then people started watching the other videos – that had been on YouTube for many years – with only hundreds of views.
This is where we get to the title: striving vs striding. This is a concept Pastor Todd references.
On our own, we are told we always need to be striving for the next thing. Once you’ve accomplished that goal, what’s the next thing you ought to be striving for? I saw a post recently and someone shared that she’d received her Doctorate in Accounting, and one of the comments was ‘Congratulations.. what’s next?’ I literally cringed. Why is the question always ‘what’s next?’ after some already major accomplishment?
Instead, Jesus models something differently. Striding instead of always striving for the next thing. I’d heard this reference twice in the same day, from different sources. Jesus walked everywhere he went. He took time to slow down and take strides. There’s so much He could have done in His three years of ministry, instead He slowed down so that He could accomplish the God given tasks.
This is an area that I struggle with at times. How much striving (pushing through in my own strength) should I be doing? How much should I take my strides (slowing down and trusting), and allowing the One who has called me here to do to complete His work?
For a perpetual do-er, it’s a question that I ponder often.
Have you figured out how to balance striving vs striding? Please feel free to share with me.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for these timely messages. Help us to be reminded that we do not need to do all the striving in our own strength, and we can lean on you to guide us in the paths that we should go with intentional and purposeful striding.
