Start today

                         
        The events of the past week have been beyond disheartening and disturbing.  Frankly, there have been many moments when many of us have felt down right despair.  How is it possible that such hatred, horrific racism, vitriol could exist right here, right now, in our nation?   The horrible underbelly of sin has been on full display, and what an unimaginably ugly, terrible, destructive picture it is.
        It's been hard to even know how to respond, but one thing I do know: our only hope is the redemptive love and forgiveness of Christ.  How I pray the Lord would move mightily in our nation to bring conviction and redemption...forgiveness and healing...restoration and revival.
        And you know what?  It has to begin with every one of us.  In our every human heart.  We each need to ask the Lord where any pockets of hatred or prejudice might be hiding in our hearts.  And then we confess those areas as sin and ask God to enable us to love as He loves. To see as He sees.  To forgive as He forgives.  To understand, serve, encourage, strengthen as He does.
        Seems like a nearly insurmountable task, doesn't it?  And it is...in our own strength and ability.  But it's not us, but Him.  It's not us loving, but Him.  Not us forgiving, but Him.  Not us bringing reconciliation, hope, and healing, but Him doing it for us and through us.
        We simply have to start.  Stop letting the fact that we can't do everything prevent us from doing the something that we can do.  Start small...but start.  Love, encourage, forgive, help in small quiet ways...but start.  Don't allow the size of the mountain ahead prevent you from lacing up your hiking boots and then simply starting, putting one foot in front of the other.  Golly, that's been my problem with writing lately--allowed myself to be too overwhelmed to even begin.  So instead of writing something, instead of writing anything, even writing it really poorly, I failed to even start.  I kept pushing away the challenging  in favor of the comfortable.  I kept choosing diversion rather than confronting difficulty and doing what I know deep down God wanted me to do.  
         And here's how I overcame that discouraging, self-defeating inertia: I simply pulled out my computer, refused to be sidetracked by reading endless emails, and began typing.  One letter at a time.  One word at a time.  I took that first step of typing and trusted that God would do all the rest--give me the words, put those words together, and maybe use those words to encourage someone else who might be struggling.  And before I knew it, that teeny tiny beginning had become a something.
        Yeah sure, it's not even close to everything...in fact, it might be next to nothing...but it's something.  And guess what?  That's good enough for me, because God hasn't called us to do everything...or most things...or even many things...but to do the something that He's given us to do.  To love, to forgive, to encourage, to serve, to strengthen those He's placed in our path and in our lives.
         God's Word says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)  With our Almighty God, it's never too late to start, and it's always too soon to quit.  
         So start today.
         To God be the glory.