COURAGE, BRAVEHEART

Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten is to “just start.” Now for someone who has cared about the output for a very long time, who has been meticulous about planning (which funny enough, I am really suuuper spontaneous at my core), it has been a challenging thing for me to do that. To just start.

“Wait a minute, hold on. You mean, just start. As in right now? (scoff!) Without the planning and the details? Without the clear roadmap and the analyzing every situation? You mean start MESSY (gasp!), not perfectly prepared and not knowing exactly where the road is going to lead. Start like that!?!”

Gulp. All I’m thinking is, “Awe, hell no.”

But before I allowed myself to stay in that mindset, I continued reading:

“Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling, but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are with what you have…just start.”

Where you are with that you have...

Mmmm…that’s my favorite part.

You know what I love? I love that God doesn’t call us to be perfectly prepared before He asks us to start. He doesn’t require us to be accomplished or to have “made it.” Quite the opposite actually. He calls us to step out in faith, just as we are, where we are, with what we have to offer. No matter how big or how little. He simply asks us to just show up. And when we show up, He’s there waiting.

He’s always there waiting. That’s what I love about Him. He is sooo patient with us. And more than anything, God cares about our willingness to be obedient more than He cares about our willingness to be right or good or accomplished or successful.

He calls us to be obedient. I talk more about this in another one of my posts, The Call To Obedience. If you wanna go a little more in depth on Obedience, pop over there and check it out.

Being obedient requires you to do what!? That’s right. To start. There it is again. Ugh.

Some days I find it’s really hard to just start. Anyone else relate to this? Life can be really hard. Especially if you’re not a self-starter (I usually am!) or if you’re in a tough season where you feel exhausted (I usually am!). It can be very difficult to be motivated to start anything big or small. Even making yourself a cup of tea can sometimes feel like too much and that’s saying something for this tea-lover. Anyone with me?

It’s also fascinating how in the same week I can have such an incredibly fulfilling, life-enriching day, and the very next can feel overwhelming. Enough to the point where I just want to shut it all out and go live on my very own grass-filled, sheep-filled island with a view of the ocean and my only companions being all of my favorite books. We are complicated creatures and yet the Lord (there’s my favorite phrase again) assures us, that the more simple we make things, the less junk and noise and stress and confusion we allow in; the less we overthink and the less we do, the easier and clearer things become. Funny how that works. I think that’s why I long to be on that island. No noise. No distractions. Just quiet, serene beauty and a clear channel to hear the Lord’s voice. But the Lord speaks wherever we are. Not just on serene sheep-filled islands.

Speaking of serene sheep-filled islands, I am writing this post from the comfort of my very own little room in a town just outside of Galway, Ireland. And the reason I’m here?

Because I decided to just start.

Even as uncomfortable, unclear, and unsure as I was about every detail and outcome. I felt like the Lord was calling me away to a quiet place to go wwoofing (which is working on organic farms – check it out and do it!). To work hard, to write and to enjoy traveling around and exploring the beauty of Ireland after a long couple of years. This was a journey He was calling me on with Him. Our adventure. Where I am learning to not only trust Him again, but to also trust myself again.

When the Lord called His people out in the bible, when He asked them to step out in faith, He never gave them all the details or told them the exact way it was going to go. That wouldn’t require much trust or faith. That would be easy peasy. But what He did give them was His word that could be trusted, His guidance to lead them on their journey, and a promise to bless their faithful obedience. But He asked them to step into the unknown before they would ever receive the reward He had in store for them or before knowing the end result.

• Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son and he stepped out in obedience to do it before the Lord stopped him and blessed him for his faithful obedience.
• Rahab obediently hid spies in order to rescue them from death and the Lord blessed her for her faithful obedience.
• Noah was asked to build a boat when everyone told him he was crazy and the Lord rescued he and his family and blessed him for his faithful obedience.
• The people were told to march around the walls of Jericho in silence for seven days, before sounding the trumpets and then the Lord would crumble the walls before them on that final day. And as bizarre as it sounded, they did it and their faithful obedience was rewarded.
• The Lord asked the Israelites to step their feet into the Jordan river before he held back the waters, and because of their faithful obedience, He did what He said He would and blessed them for their faithfulness.

And these are just some of the stories in the bible. There are countless others where the Lord called people to step out in faith, into radical obedience before they could see the outcome of what He was actually calling them into. But the end result was always glorious and always worth it.

So here I am. Alone. In Ireland. On a farm. Working 5 hours a day, 5 days a week in exchange for room and board for 3 months.

And I have to tell you, it’s been a rough start. Not all magic and rainbows like I thought. Flights were delayed and canceled getting here. I arrived 2 days late, which meant I missed 2 days of activities and hotels that had already been booked that I couldn’t get refunds on. They lost my bag and I was without anything I needed and had to make do for 5 days without any clothes. I was completely exhausted and being in that state, I started to question if I had made a mistake; why all of this was happening. If I had heard wrong. And you know what? That’s okay. Because sometimes starting is messy and it’s nerve-wracking and things don’t go as planned. But that’s not the important part. Nope. The important part is that I was brave enough to step out in obedience in the first place and just start. Mess included. Even if I didn’t know it at the time. So, bravo!! I get a gold star. A+. I’ve already won! Congratulations!

And so have you if you have been willing to step out. And if you haven’t yet. It’s okay. It’s not too late. If your palms are sweaty and you’re questioning everything and every bad thing you can think of has started to flood your brain in order to turn you away from saying yes; well, you just push right through all of that nonsense and BS and obediently say yes to whatever it is that you feel like the Lord is calling you to be radically obedient in. Because even though you don’t know what’s on the other side of that obedience, even though I don’t know what He wants to show me and teach my in my time here in sheep-land, I know whatever it is, is going to be more than worth it. Because anything I’m doing in partnership with the Lord is going to be a glorious sight to behold. I can’t wait to see it!

So take courage, Braveheart! Start now!