He stood there talking with his best friend Jenny. They weren’t bothering anyone, they were simply standing chatting in the shade of a large canopy of trees on the dirt road on the way home from school.
Then the bullies arrived.
They mocked him and threw things at him, all because he wore braces on his legs.
He had weak legs as a young boy so the doctors fitted him with metal braces to help his legs grow true. However, they were very cumbersome and prohibited him from moving at anything but a very slow, awkward, methodical gait.
However, this day all of that would change. As the bullies moved in for the kill like a pack of wolves, Jenny turned Forrest around, gave him a shove forward and yelled,
“Run Forrest run!”
Forrest obeyed.
He took off as fast as his feeble legs could carry him. He hobbled down that dirt road with an uncoordinated intentionality. But something happened as he set himself to move forward. Something transformed in him as he forcefully chose to move in spite of his limitations – his limitations became less limiting. In fact, eventually his legs braces blew off and he shot forward running at a pace he had never dreamed possible.
He became a “running fool” as the townsfolk called him! He ran everywhere. He couldn’t be stopped.
This scene from the movie Forrest Gump recently came to mind as I had the pleasure and privilege of praying for a young man struggling with a number of things, including complacency. He realized he needed to repent from the lies that he had believed. He had given the enemy legal right to imprison and limit him in various ways.
He also realized that he has the authority to reject the strategy of the enemy set against him, by stepping into his God-given authority, and by beginning to feed on the Truth. However, he is battling complacency in regard to all of this…
Complacency is defined as, “a feeling of pleasure or security, while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation or condition.”
I define it as an attitude of, “I don’t really care to change. I’m fine”. It can come across as an unwillingness to move forward.
Complacency is a little bit like Forrest Gump’s leg braces: it inhibits you from moving forward out of your current condition into one of greater freedom.
The young man we were praying for saw his need to move forward out of his current situation. He wanted to choose to go deeper with Jesus and change what he believes, and how he lives, but complacency was restricting his moving forward like leg braces.
As we prayed and talked through his situation we realized he needed to learn a lesson from Forrest Gump…
Just take a step forward. You may not be able to begin running right away, but you can take a step forward. You can choose to care enough to take a step, then another, then another, then a bigger step, and another bigger step. And the next thing you know you’re further than you thought you would be and you’re moving with a determined strength you never thought possible.
Are you like my friend, do you battle complacency? Do you lack motivation to change your situation? Are you apathetic and afraid about your ability to move forward in your relationship with Jesus, or your wife, or anyone else?
Think of Forrest Gump. Think of a hobbling little boy sick and tired of being bullied, who is willing to put one foot in front of the other with a bold determination motivated by an intense desire to move to a different place and move away from that which is oppressing him.
Be like Forrest and take a step forward, no matter how awkward it may feel. Then take another, and another. As you move forward into the Truth, complacency will begin to break off you like Forrest’s leg braces.
Run Forrest run!
John 8:32, 36
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Proverbs 1:32
“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;”
Philippians 3:12-14
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”