Today I stopped a crowd. I didn’t intend to cause such a commotion, it was just a little distraction, but many people followed.
A large group of friends and I were walking back to our hotel room through a mall after attending a conference. I happened to be at the front of the group when I saw a very trendy necklace in shop window. I stopped to have a look which stopped the group I was walking with, the rest of my friends behind them, and another group of ladies walking behind them. Then more people stopped to see what this big group of people were looking at! After a few moments my friends called me over and explained that I had just stopped traffic in the mall. Woops!
Whether you know it or not, people are following you. If you are in ministry, it may even be people you don’t know. If you get distracted and wander off the path or get so busy that you stop moving in the direction that God wants you to go, you will be holding people up or distracting others. Some might follow you in, some might get tripped up, others might get slowed down.
It might be a negative attitude, a schedule with no time for God, a secret, an addiction, unforgiveness. But even if you think you’re alone, all sin which remains undealt with affects your relationship with God which will always affect our relationship with others. Not one person goes unnoticed, not one sin is without effect.
I slowed down a lot of people because of my distraction, but on the other hand, 100 people might have noticed that bargain jewelry shop because I stopped. What a reminder of the great privilege we have to inspire people to pause and consider their relationship with God because we have taken this time to stop, pray, declutter, refresh, renew, remember, rest, speak, write or share.
I have no idea how many people follow me, but I am reminded that God calls all of us to live for Him and be an example to others. So instead of having my own agenda and looking out only for myself, I am going to do my best to follow Him and faithfully walk the journey He has for me.
“I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:14 (NIV)
What a great example and reminder Donna, Thank yoU!