Dot… dot… dot. Every time I sit down to write I find myself worrying over the opening lines. I mean think about it, you can only make a first impression once. It’s those ‘firsts’ that stick in our mind. First steps, first tooth, first laugh, first smile, first words. When we miss those things that happened the first time, we somehow feel like we got cheated. It’s why the master authors worked to diligently to leave us with:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me." - Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger
“Call me Ishmael.” – Moby Dick, Herman Melville
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – 1984, George Orwell
“I am Sam” – Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss.
“In the beginning God created the Heavens and Earth.” – Genesis, Moses
And, so I give you dot…dot…dot. I know it’s not original but it conveys the simple truth that beginnings aren’t as easy for us grown-ups as they are for kids. 'Firsts' for us are often the most difficult part of our voyage. Adults like to analyze what should be done, while children go and do. have you noticed that destinations are for dreamers and voyages are for doers? Let me put it to you this way, if you fail to ever take the first step in accomplishing your goals and dreams you are absolutely positively certain to never reach them.
When I was a senior in high school I was one elective short of graduating and decided to enroll in a class on leadership. As far as I can remember it was not a very good class. At the end of the semester we took a piece of paper and wrote out our 10 year goals. We then placed our wildest dreams inside a canister and buried it somewhere on the school property. The idea was to open it at our 10 year reunion and see how we had progressed. (I missed my 10 year reunion because I was doing the Lord’s work… actually we were broke and didn’t have the gas money to get back to Oklahoma).
I don’t recall what I put on that piece of paper. Maybe it was something like: Scale Mt. McKinley barefooted; serve as a U.S. Senator; Cure cancer; walk on the moon or at least learn to moonwalk; solo at Carnegie Hall or at least eat lunch at Carnegie Deli; restore a 1973 International Scout II. I don’t recall exactly what the list looked like, but it was something like that.
My faith has goals. Philippians 2 – points my attitude toward Christ-likeness. 1 Corinthians 13 – points my love toward fullness and maturity. James 1 and Hebrews 11 point my faith toward completeness. I want my life, my attitude, my actions and reactions to mirror Jesus. I imagine many of you would affirm this same list. The destination of faith is a destination unlike any other. But, unless you are willing to take a first step you are only a dreamer. John Ortberg authored a tremendous book called, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat. Enough said.
This summer many of you will go on vacation. You can picture the clear water of the gulf coast even now as you are reading this. You can smell the mixture of salt, sand and fish. You can feel the sun baking on your spf-90ed back. You will load up the beach chairs, towels and nets and get in your car. You will go to the bank and take out a loan in order to fill your car up with gas. You will set your GPS system to Beachfront, USA. But, there is a point when you have to leave… drive out of your driveway… hit the road jack… and get going.
Maybe the same thing is true for us today. It’s easy to complain about our life circumstances. It’s easy to focus on the things that are wrong with both us and the world today. We can picture in our minds quite clearly, who we would like to be, BUT, there are steps to the gym, steps from the refrigerator, steps to the church, steps to a different job. Stepst that seem so big and so scary. First steps are the most difficult, as you will surely fall. First steps are also the most rewarding because you know the journey has begun.
