Moving Forward When You're Stuck.

Welcome to the day of Pentecost. I am an associate pastor at Fountain of Life Covenant Church under the leadership of Reverend Dr. Alex Gee and the First Lady Executive Pastor Jackie Gee. They send their greetings to you. That church has been around for a long time and we have some great things happening there. I don't know if you know about the Center of Black Excellence and Culture that's starting. On Juneteenth, on Wednesday, there's going to be a groundbreaking for a center focused on Black excellence and Black culture at 11 o'clock.

I came to Madison to work on the Urbana Student Mission Conference, which is hosted by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I've worked with college students for years and years, though I don't work for InterVarsity any longer. I'm still here in Madison.

I'm from San Francisco, California, a native San Francisco person. I grew up in Northern California. One thing you know about Northern Californians and Southern Californians is that they do not like each other. It turns out that people in LA don't even really bother with Northern California, which probably irritates Northern California. When I was considering seminary options, the only reason I would go to Los Angeles would be to go to Fuller Seminary. I was not kidding. There was no other reason I was going to move to Los Angeles because I'm from San Francisco and we may drive through Los Angeles but we certainly are not going to live there.

Getting stuck and moving forward

I want to tell you about a time about a year ago when, in a span of a few weeks, I kept having really intense dreams. I'd carry them through the day. It was like every other day. My husband and I would chat about them. We'd be sipping coffee in the morning and he'd be like, so what did we dream last night? I would tell him about these dreams.

There was a theme in all the dreams. All the dreams were about being stuck. In one dream, I was stuck under a desk. I'm not a flexible person physically. I currently have a bad hip that well I'm getting a new hip this summer. But I can't be getting under desks. I'm trying like, if I move the leg, can I get out? I can't figure out how to get out from under the desk.

In another dream, I was stuck in a super awkward conversation and I didn't know how to get out of it. I'm not Midwest nice, so typically I'm pretty good at getting out. But there was something about this interaction where I could not figure out how to get out.

In another dream, I was stuck in North Korea. I didn't know how I got there. It wasn't the DMZ. I was in North Korea in a room kind of with walls like these, but I knew I was in North Korea. And I was like, how can I get out that door? Weird dreams.

In all these dreams, I was asking myself: how did I get here under this desk and not able to get out? How did I get into this awkward conversation? How did I get to North Korea? And how do I get out of here? And then I would wake up still like under the desk or still in North Korea or still in this awkward conversation.

Being stuck is natural

Dr. Gladys McCary is 103 years old. I checked today just to make sure, because that's old. You got to make sure when you're talking about someone, she's still alive. She has been a medical doctor for more than 60 years. That's twice some of your ages. And it is her expert opinion that it's natural for all of us to feel stuck sometimes. Maybe that's good news for you. Maybe you feel stuck and it's good to not feel like it's bad or like it's unnatural.

Part of Dr. McCary's work is she helps people who are stuck to get unstuck. Mostly it's in their body. They're stuck in some way and she helps them get unstuck and then live in their life focusing on movement. While being stuck is natural, being stuck for a long time is not good for us. What Dr. McCary would say is, living things want to move. They want to move. That's part of what her work is as a doctor. She helps patients who are stuck move.

But what do we do when our efforts to move forward are blocked? What do we do when what we've done before hasn't worked or isn't working or it makes us more stuck? How are we to navigate life when we simply can't get any traction?

Getting somewhere but getting stuck along the way

Today, we're going to look at Acts 16 to answer these questions. As a bonus, not only are we going to learn about some people who got stuck and kept moving forward, we're going to learn about the beginning of the Philippian church. Philippians is one of my favorite books in the Bible and I love this story.

The context of this passage is that Paul and his crew were in a habit of traveling to major cities. That was their practice. When they would come to a city, they would locate a Jewish congregation, which at that time was typically a synagogue, and they would attend the gathering where worship and religious instruction was happening. If Paul and anyone in his crew were invited to speak, they would stand up and speak in the synagogue and talk about Jesus being the Messiah. They would invite people to follow Jesus and then they would start a community in that city. That was the regular business. That was their pattern. The pattern: major city, Jewish synagogue, speak about Jesus, extended invitation to follow Jesus, start a church in that city. Let's go to the next city. Synagogue. Preach about Jesus. Invite people to follow Jesus. Start a community. Next city.

This happened in cities like Paphos, Iconium, Derby, Lystra. These are all cities in modern-day Turkey or Syria. This was the pattern. Let me read to us Acts 16, verses 6 through 15. It's a tradition in our church that if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's word.

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over here to Macedonia and help us. After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. From Troas, we put out to sea and sailed straight from Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. And from there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia, and we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. And when she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay in my house. And she persuaded us.

Acts 16:6-15

This passage picks up right at the beginning of what is known as Paul's second missionary journey. He had a first one, a second one, and a third one. There's indications that he and his crew were planning to redo some of the places they went on their first missionary journey. However, when the crew is on the eastern part of the Roman province of Asia, they're prohibited to go into the region. The scriptures tell us that they tried to go north toward Bithynia but they were prohibited again. Did you notice that? The Spirit of the Lord wouldn't let them. The Spirit of Jesus blocked them. That's what's happening. They keep moving forward, even though they keep getting blocked. Nope, nope. They just keep moving forward.

If you follow them on the map, you can see that they go all the way around. They keep moving forward and their journey wraps around Asia, where they had been many times before. They end up in Troas, which is an important city in the Roman Empire. How did they get to Troas? That wasn't where they planned to go. They got to Troas by moving forward. They got to Troas because they kept going. Even though they had been blocked, they kept moving forward.

They were hindered while they tried to get into Asia. That must have been so weird. They had been to Asia so many times. So weird. Think about a place you've been to and then you try to go there and for some reason you can't get there. It just seems such a weird strategy move of the Holy Spirit. Like, it had worked before. Why wouldn't it work again? So they head north to Bithynia but they were blocked while trying to get there. That also seems strange. There's no indication why they were blocked, but there is indication that God is the one who blocked them. They were blocked by the Holy Spirit.

What I love about this is that even though things weren't going their way, they kept moving forward. Sometimes when I get blocked, I just sit and I don't have curiosity or adventure for what might be an alternative route. Sometimes when we're blocked, we keep trying. Is it this job? Nope. Is it this job? Nope. Is it this job? Nope. Is it this relationship? Nope. Is it this relationship? Nope. Is it this car I should buy? Nope, nope, nope.

Sometimes when things come to a standstill, particularly when we're very focused on it, we question everything. We start analyzing our motives. Maybe if I was more pure, I could get that car I really want. Maybe when my life was all together, then maybe I'll get this relationship I really want. We pray anxious prayers. We can assume we're being punished. Maybe we judge ourselves for not being strong enough in our faith. Maybe we have insecure thoughts and perspectives. We think, well, other people are hearing from God. Other people are in relationships or get jobs or find the apartment they want. Like this is happening to other people. Why isn't this happening for me?

Sometimes when we're blocked, we can get real busy with busyness because it feels a lot better to be active and just doing stuff than just stopping and acknowledging, wow, I feel very like I'm at a standstill and I am not enjoying this at all. But this isn't what Paul and his crew were like, is it? Even though they kept getting blocked, they just kept moving ahead. Well, let's go to the next town. Nope, it's not that. Let's go to the next place. Nope, it's not that.

They held on to their plan that once they got to wherever they could get to, they would find a synagogue and they would teach about Jesus and they would invite people to follow Jesus and they would create a Christian community in that place. When Paul was in Troas, he had a vision of a man from Macedonia. The man from Macedonia is in his sleep and in the vision, the man begs Paul and his crew. Please come over. Help us. That's what Paul heard in this vision. He woke up, told them, and they're like, sounds good. Let's go. So they headed toward Macedonia.

When they arrived in Macedonia, they had Philippi. It says the leading city. Again, they're going to a leading city in that province. But did you notice as I was reading that even though Paul gets a vision of a man, there's no man? Where's the man? Imagine they're walking around like, okay, Paul, what did he look like?

So they're walking around and they're like, no, no, oh, that guy, but no. And they're walking. It says they were there for a couple of days. In my sort of sanctified imagination, I think they're like, where's the guy? Where's the guy? Where's the guy? But there's no guy. There's no man.

Part of the reason how we know there's no man is they don't go to a synagogue. To have a synagogue in a city you would need 10 men to create a quorum to have a synagogue. So the fact that they went outside of town where the women were praying alerts the reader. Oh, there aren't even 10 Jewish men in this town. So there's no man, no synagogue. But they hear women praying outside and they go talk to the women. It would be fair to ask if they would feel blocked. Their plan was major city, synagogue, preach, invite, church. So they get to a major city. That checks off the first part of the strategy. But they're walking around and there's no synagogue. You could have interpreted that as, oh, this Philippi. Nope, get on the boat, guys. Let's go to the next place. It's not working outside the plan. But instead they're like, okay, we can do this with no man and no synagogue. So we can make do with it. They hear about a faithful praying community of women and so on the Sabbath, they go out there to talk to them.

From Troas, they move forward to Philippi because of a vision of a man, but when they show up, they meet some women. What do we make of this? I sort of wonder if maybe they wouldn't have gone if it was a vision of a woman. It's also possible that because Paul was relating with men in the synagogue, that was the strategy that was what he had done all over Asia. So it's possible that if he had a vision of a woman he would have thought, no, no, no. So it is possible that he needed a vision of a man to move forward. And then once he got there, we see how flexible he is with the plan.

Might it be possible that Paul needed a vision of a man to get him to move forward toward Macedonia, even though the church wasn't going to be started by men this time? I think it's possible. The vision, the dream, the desire, the ambition, it moves us forward. But might it be possible that a dream you have that moves you forward in the end isn't actually even about that dream being accomplished? Might it be possible that God sometimes gives us the dream we need to get us moving forward, the dream we can imagine, but once we get to that place, God's like, oh, it actually wasn't about that after all. Anyway, I just needed you to get here, and now we're on another strategy.

My journey to Los Angeles

After 10 years of being on staff at the University, I was given a sabbatical. I was working at the time on the central coast of California at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, go Mustangs. I wanted to go to seminary on the sabbatical. So my seminary options were Fuller, Denver Seminary, or Nyack. I was thinking like really it was like oh my gosh am I really going to go to Fuller? I was thinking about Denver, I was thinking about Nyack, had a friend who taught at Nyack. I was just thinking like I just want to go get a little seminary.

Friends of mine introduced me to Dr. Bobby Clinton, who's a very distinguished professor of leadership and was a professor at Fuller at the time. These friends asked him on my behalf, if Una were to come to Fuller, will you mentor her? And he said, yes. Felt like Forrest Gump in that moment. Like, how did this even happen? So I moved to Los Angeles to go to Fuller Seminary.

So I needed the vision of Fuller Seminary to get me to Los Angeles. That was a vision I needed. But as soon as that sabbatical was over, the plans were to go back to where I'd been living. However, at the end of my sabbatical, circumstances beyond my control blocked me from returning. And it certainly did not feel like the Spirit of God that did that. Felt like some very mean people did that to me. But at any rate, I did not go back to where I'd been living. I ended up living in Los Angeles for nine years. Nine years.

Part of the time in the neighborhood where someone is going to live. I worked with InterVarsity in Los Angeles and I finished my degree at Fuller Seminary. Fuller Seminary and Bobby Clinton were the reasons I moved to Los Angeles, but getting that degree at Fuller and relating with Bobby Clinton and learning so much from him was not the full dream that God had for me. It was part of the dream, but it was not the full dream.

I received lifelong friendships and mentoring and ministry opportunities, and I learned to live and work in a very diverse context. Living in Los Angeles, it turns out, super fun, very interesting, and it's delicious there. The food is amazing. I think of any culture and it's amazing. Those nine years in Los Angeles literally changed the course of my life. But I needed the vision of Fuller Seminary to get there. Paul's vision of the Macedonian man changed his ministry life and his team. He moved forward in calling to plant churches in the region and they met Lydia and other women and they shared about Jesus being the Messiah with these women and her household. They believed and the church was started in her living room.

She was baptized, her household was baptized, and they persuaded him, come to my living room, and that's where the church started. Philippi is the start of where Paul's ministry was more toward Greek people and less toward Jewish people. It literally changed the trajectory of his ministry. Where it had all been big cities, synagogues, men, churches, and now it was Greek people, little Jewish influence, preaching the gospel. This vision of the man and them moving forward and not being blocked by that literally changed the course of his ministry and the course of church history.

Three lessons from getting stuck

I'm not sure where you are in your life, what you're carrying right now, if you're stuck or if you're moving forward, but there are three lessons I think we can glean from this passage.

One is keep moving forward, be it in faith, in prayer, in hope. Have some curiosity about what might be on the other side of that no. Is there a sidestep? So keep moving forward. The no to Asia and Bithynia wasn't a no to their calling. It was a no that got them to Macedonia.

Two, follow your dreams in community. Paul gets a lot of press and rightly so. He did a lot. He wrote a lot of the New Testament. He was great. He did a lot of great stuff. But if you notice, Paul is either ministering in community or talking about community. He followed God. He followed his dreams in the midst of community. I encourage you to do the same. Please have your own sense of self and your own sense of what God has put in you to do in the world. But do that in the midst of community, with other people. You may wake up with a dream or a vision and people can be like, sounds good to me. Let's do it. By yourself maybe you're going to question yourself or whatever. So stay in community. Be in community with other people who are serious about loving God with their whole selves and really wanting to make a gospel difference in this world.

Three, be clear on what is negotiable as it relates to your dream or your vision or your plan. For Paul, location is negotiable. He was told to go to these places and he just kept going. Finally he found a place where he could go. Who he shared the gospel with was negotiable. The pattern before was Jewish men he was sharing the gospel with. Turns out he was like, no, that's negotiable. I'm going to go share with these women down by the creek. What wasn't negotiable for him was sharing about Jesus being the Messiah and creating a worshiping community of Jesus followers in that city. There were parts of the strategy that was negotiable and there were a few things that were not. So as you follow your dreams, as you follow Jesus, get clear on what is negotiable.

Dr. Gladys McCary

Dr. Gladys McCary was born in India in 1920. Her parents were medical missionaries. They were doctors and their calling was to treat patients that typically didn't receive care because of social stigma. That's the world Dr. Gladys grew up in. As a young girl living in India and assisting her parents in their work, she felt the call to also become a medical doctor. She set her sights on this calling and it helped move her forward amidst some blocks and challenges.

One of the blocks is that from an early age, Dr. Gladys considered herself stupid. And it turns out that other people thought she was stupid also, like her first grade teacher. Because she couldn't read very well, the whole class was aware that the future Dr. Gladys McCary was stupid. She did so poorly in first grade that she had to repeat it. She had this dream to be a doctor. She knew by the time she was in first grade, she wanted to be a doctor. She questioned wisely: how am I going to be a doctor if I can't read? That's a pretty big thought. How are you going to be a doctor if you can't read?

She understood that she wouldn't make it too far in the world if she didn't figure out reading. But there was no other word to describe her except stupid. Later, she learned that she didn't struggle with reading because she was stupid. She struggled with reading because she was dyslexic. She couldn't read not because she wasn't smart, but because she had dyslexia. Before she learned the term for why she couldn't read, she had to get beyond this undiagnosed thing and just, well, they say I'm stupid, but I'm going to just keep trying.

I'm going to keep moving forward. I have this call in my life to be a doctor, and I'm going to just keep trying. Eventually, she found a teacher who would work with her and they figured it out and taught her how to read. And then she became Dr. Gladys McCary. Eventually, she moved to the United States from India for high school, for college, and for medical school. She thought because of her learning disability that medical school was going to be the biggest challenge for her. But that actually wasn't the biggest challenge.

When she was becoming a doctor in the 1950s, the biggest challenge was her colleagues who had opinions about where women should be. They shouldn't be medical doctors. Unfortunately, many of her colleagues sought to sabotage her career because of their assumptions about who gets to be a doctor and who doesn't get to be a doctor. Imagine you finally arrived at your destination and others try to push you back or thwart you moving forward. I imagine some of us here probably know what that's like.

Gladys' father told her, don't you ever give up. He believed the dream that she had to become a doctor. He believed she was enough to become a doctor. He told her, don't ever give up. Whenever she was blocked, she would remember her father. Don't give up. And she would say she would go around the block. She didn't let no be the thing that blocked her. She would get around that.

So not only did she fulfill her dream of being a doctor and run a family practice for more than 60 years, she's also internationally recognized as the mother of holistic medicine. She's had this incredible influence on the international medical community. All of that because she refused to be blocked. She refused to be blocked from what she felt God had put in her to do.

So brothers and sisters, like Dr. Gladys McCary, we also have a father who says don't give up. We have a father in heaven who loves us and he says don't give up. I believe God has called and is calling you to something. God has given and he will give dreams. Please don't give up on them. Don't give up on your dreams. Don't let blocks keep you distracted from your calling. Don't give up on yourself. Stick close to Jesus and the community and you will get from here to there.

Closing reflection

I mentioned earlier that this is the story of the beginning of the Philippian church. In the book of Philippians, Paul tells the church that started in Lydia's living room to not give up. He writes in Philippians 1:6 that he had confidence that the one who began a good work in that church would move it forward toward completion. And he wrote in Philippians 2:13 that God is at work in them. God is doing something in them. God is active in their lives for his glory. God is active in my life and in your life for his glory and for our joy.

As we move forward, let's remember that God is for us. Even though the spirit may block you, God is for you and it's not a punishment. The good shepherd is attentive and the good shepherd will lead me and will lead you from here to there.

Think about how you're feeling about things. Maybe you're not feeling blocked and you can praise the Lord for that and you can sing along and tell God how glad you are. But maybe you are feeling blocked or maybe there's parts of your life that you feel like this is not totally what I think the thriving full life is. Maybe in this reflective time, make yourself curious about what are some ways around this block. Instead of feeling held back, think about, man, if I were to demonstrate some agency in a few of these areas, what would happen?

As we sing this song, I want you to reflect on the goodness of God. How much God loves you and wants to give you your dreams, and he wants to realize some of his dreams in you also.