Recently I had someone ask me if I had sold my motorcycle yet. They knew that it had been something I had said I was going to do for a couple of years now. Well, I have not yet put it up for sale after two years of saying it was something I was going to do.
I have found that not much will happen if I don’t make an effort to get it started. There has to be a starting place before there is a finish line. Many things we all deal with in our lives are just that way. We have good intentions but we never take the necessary action to see them through.
I have heard people express their failure to act on something. Usually they will tell me of how if they would have only bought or invested in something way back when they would have been on easy street now. I know that a lot of that way of thing is hindsight, which is 20/20, but there are many decisions that we intend to make and never do. The problem is not the finish line, it is the starting gate. No one can win a race if they do not start it.
Fear and indecision are two big factors in failing to get started. In Matthew chapter 8, Jesus is in a boat with his disciples. A great storm comes up and the boat is filling with water. Jesus is now asleep and his disciples wake him up asking him if he cared that they were in a storm. In verse 26 He answers them: “Why are you fearful, O You of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.
It is said that 80% of the things we fear will happen, never do. Jesus was again addressing fear in Matthew 10: 20-31. “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.”
It might be time that we put aside fear and indecision and get started by building a personal relationship with Jesus who can calm our storms and direct our paths. Or we can let things stay as they are and someday tell others how we missed it.
These are the truths we look into at the Gathering Place every Wednesday evening at 7, and again on Sunday morning at 9:30 and 10:30. You are invited to join us.
