We Have to Start Somewhere

The hardest part of doing anything is getting started. Want to get in shape? Showing up to the gym for the first time is the hardest part. Once we get to the gym it’s easy to say to ourselves we might as well do something now that we’re here. So, we walk over to the treadmill, push the speed to just past standing still and we start walking. None of that would have happened without the extreme effort of showing up. 

It’s the same with writing a novel. We have a great story with driving action and hypnotic characters, but for some reason, we can never get to our desks and start writing. We suddenly have to clean the kitchen, wax the car and take apart our coffee machine for an extreme cleaning. For some reason, we’d rather do anything rather than write.  Sitting down in front of a blank screen or blank piece of paper is just too hard. 

No matter the journey, regardless of the project, getting started is the hardest part. That first step always seems to be the hardest one. Once we start, it seems, we’re fine. But getting started…

If you’re looking for a common thread that unites all of the Bible, try this one: God is always starting. The Bible begins with the beginning of the beginning – creation. God begins again with Noah and again with Abraham. The promise of a great nation begins with the birth of one child. Time and time again, God starts and everything will be going great until His people lose focus and energy and God starts over again. He starts again with David. He starts again with Nehemiah. 

He ultimately starts again with Jesus. Jesus starts with His disciples and so it goes. While the frustrations of living in an incomplete world – between the starting of the promise and the conclusion of that promise – we have to keep in mind that God is always starting. He’s starting in countless small churches and small groups gathered around someone’s kitchen table. He’s starting in rehab centers and local high schools. In fact, God seems to be willing to start with anybody anywhere.  He doesn’t start with famous people or begin in famous places. Bethlehem wasn’t famous until Jesus showed up. The field where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount is just a field – but it was a good enough place to start. 

We seem to think God can’t start anything until everything is ready. We spend all of our time, as we say in the South, “fixing to get ready” for God to work. We aren’t ready, we aren’t getting ready, we’re thinking about starting to get things ready.  There’s always something we need to work out, clean up or rinse off before Jesus can get started. 

As we know, the hardest part of getting anything done is getting started. 

Yet, the only thing Jesus needs from us is our permission to get started. As He starts, all of those things that blocked us from getting started are handled. Slowly, but surely, Jesus does His redemptive work in our lives. Jesus doesn’t seem particular about with whom He starts. He doesn’t seem particular about where He starts. Anyone is good. Any place is fine. 

His first start keeps on starting. A changed husband starts the change in his family. A changed mother starts the start in her children. A changed musician starts the change in her band and a changed professor starts the change in a classroom. A changed family starts the change in a neighborhood and a changed small group starts the change in a church. 

All of the people in the Bible are only remembered after they met God. We heard about them after God started. Where would Moses have been if God had not met him in the burning bush? Where would Jacob have been without the ladder at Bethel? Who would have ever heard of Peter without Caesarea Philippi or Paul without Damascus Road?

And that’s the point, isn’t it? Our God is able to accomplish His plans with anyone He chooses. He can begin wherever He wants. Our God is so good and so creative, so powerful and so merciful, He can use anything – even nothing at all – to fulfill His plans. 

It’s not about the clay. It’s about the potter. It’s not how well we’ve prepared for Him. It’s how good He is with whatever we give Him.It’s not in choosing the best place, but what He can do in no place at all. Unlike us, our God has no problem starting – even if He has to start with us. 

He has no problem beginning – no matter where He starts from. 

Our God will be faithful to complete all that He’s begun. That’s the promise. On that day, all of His starts will be finished and we’re all He wants to get started, no matter who we are. We don’t have to be anyone else or go anywhere. He’ll start with who we are. He’ll start with where we are.

He’ll finish if we only let Him get started.