Deacon Jude Tam Tran

MOTION MATTERS MORE THAN POSITION

“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal.” — Philippians 3:13–14
“The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” — Proverbs 4:18

Have you ever felt stuck, behind, or one bad Monday away from giving up? So, let me tell you a story about this quote.

“Greatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes — Essayist, poet, teacher of anatomy

There was an old train station at the edge of town where two trains sat side by side every morning. One gleamed—fresh paint, polished brass, important people boarding with important-looking briefcases. The other looked tired. Paint chipped. Seats worn thin. Mostly farmers, teachers, and folks with thermoses and patience.

One morning, a young man stood on the platform staring at the shiny train. He checked his reflection in the window of the old one and frowned.

“This one looks like success,” he muttered, nodding at the gleaming train. “That one looks like… me.”

A conductor nearby overheard him and smiled. “Son,” he said, “don’t judge a train by how it looks standing still. Judge it by where it’s going.”

Right then, the shiny train let out a hiss of steam—and rolled backward. A mechanical issue. The worn train creaked forward, slow but steady, heading straight toward the mountains.

That young man learned something that day Oliver Wendell Holmes had been trying to tell us for centuries: motion matters more than position.

We live in a world obsessed with where people stand. Titles. Salaries. Likes. Milestones. We look around and measure ourselves like yardsticks—Who’s ahead? Who’s behind? Who looks successful from the platform?

But Holmes gently flips the question: not where are you, but where are you headed?

Because standing still in the right place doesn’t make you great. And moving forward from the wrong place absolutely can.

That truth is both comforting and humbling.

Comforting, because it means you’re not disqualified just because you’re not where you want to be yet.

Humbling, because it means intention matters more than excuses.

I once knew a man who bragged constantly about his glory days—what he used to do, who he used to be, the doors that once opened for him. He stood proudly in yesterday. Meanwhile, another man quietly worked a small job, learned new skills at night, treated people kindly, and showed up every day trying to grow.

Guess which one’s life kept moving?

The Bible puts this wisdom into motion beautifully. Philippians 3:13–14 says, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal.” Notice Paul doesn’t say he’s arrived. He says he’s moving.

And in God’s economy, direction beats position every time.

Jesus told parables about seeds, not statues. Growth requires movement—even slow movement.
Especially slow movement.

Here’s the humorous part: most of us want greatness to feel dramatic. Like a trumpet blast. A before-and-after montage. But real greatness often looks like quiet consistency and awkward beginnings.

It looks like the person who goes for a ten-minute walk instead of waiting for the “perfect” fitness plan.
It looks like the apology you practice in the car before finally saying it.
It looks like choosing to pray again, even after you’ve doubted a hundred times.

Greatness is not flashy—it’s faithful.

And direction doesn’t have to be fast to be right. A compass needle barely moves, but it always points north. That tiny correction can save you from walking off a cliff.

Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” Morning light doesn’t explode into noon. It grows. Slowly. Surely.

That’s how change works.

We often shame ourselves for not being “there yet,” without realizing that movement itself is the miracle. Every step forward—even a wobbling one—declares hope.

Now let’s bring this home to everyday life.

If you’re learning to forgive, but still struggling—direction matters.
If you’re rebuilding after failure—direction matters.
If you’re starting over with shaky confidence—direction matters.

God is less interested in how impressive your starting point looks and far more interested in whether your heart is turned toward Him.

You can be at the bottom of the hill facing upward and be closer to greatness than someone at the top facing down.

Holmes understood something deeply human: standing can be deceiving. You can stand in comfort and decay. You can stand in fear and call it safety. Or you can move—uncertain, imperfect, but alive.

So, here’s the gentle wisdom wrapped inside his words:

Stop disqualifying yourself because of where you are.
Stop comparing your chapter one to someone else’s chapter twenty.

Start asking a better question: Am I moving toward what matters?

Because greatness is not a location. It’s a trajectory.

And if today all you can manage is a small step—take it. Heaven measures faithfulness in inches, not miles.

Keep moving. Keep turning toward the light.

The direction you choose today will quietly shape the life you stand in tomorrow.