JUNE 9, 2025

 “Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

2 CHRONICLES 29-31

20This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. 21In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered. (31:20-21)

JOHN 18:1-23

15Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

17“You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter.

He replied, “I am not.”

18It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

JOURNAL 

Hezekiah didn’t stall at the edge of indecision—he moved forward with resolve. He didn’t just clean the temple; he restored it. He didn’t just reestablish worship; he led it. Scripture says, “In everything that he undertook… he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered” (2 Chronicles 31:21). That’s the kind of forward movement I want in my life—not half-hearted obedience, but a wholehearted pursuit of God, even when it stretches me, even when it costs me.

But then there’s Peter.
He followed Jesus, yes—but when the moment came to stand firm, to hold the line, he stumbled. His intentions were bold, but his actions folded. He stood outside by a fire, cold and afraid, and when questioned, he denied even knowing the One he loved (John 18:15–18).

How many times have I done the same? Followed from a distance, but denied with my choices?
It’s so easy to live in a mental faith—an internal belief that never quite reaches my hands, my voice, my calendar. But real faith demands motion. Obedience. Discipline. Courage. It’s not meant to stay hidden in the mind or whispered in safe places. It must be embodied. Lived.

There are days I feel like Peter: uncertain, weary, and afraid. And yet the Spirit whispers, Go forward. Only thing to do. And in those moments, I remember that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1,4). Even in failure, I am free. Even when I stumble, I am called to rise.

Following Jesus means pushing forward—not out of guilt or fear, but out of the deep peace that comes when I surrender. A peace that doesn’t make sense to the world. A peace that gives me the strength to rise again tomorrow, sword in hand, heart still trembling, but resolved:
On we go.

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^a free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^b God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^c And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

ROMANS 8:1-4