START

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Ziglar once said,

You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

I really like that.

Here it is Wednesday and the bulk of the week has been spent doing my best to help others “start”; right from the get go.

First was a meeting with a passionate Pastor contemplating HOW HIS prominent congregation can START helping those in his community impacted by the drug challenge.

Then off to Newark where an amazing group of dedicated and love-filled folks were seeking how to START uncovering unity, action, and hope for their deeply divided and similarly suffering community.

Then yesterday involved posting the first of many EVENTBRITE opportunities to help neighborhoods and neighbors to START coming together to help one another.

But it can be hard to START.

We say things like,

“I’m not qualified. I don’t have the education. I am not influential. It is too hard.  I don’t have the funds. I wouldn’t know how to begin anyway. If someone else gets going, I will join in.”

And more times than not, we let fear and anxieties like these keep us on the sidelines, keep us out of the starting blocks, keep us on the bench longing.

This past weekend one of my friends in this work, A.R. finally got to “really” START. A vision that she has had in her heart and spirit for a LONG time has finally become real.  What seemed impossible, implausible, un-affordable, and improbable is now real.  

And all along the way she had to be willing to START.

Start…

Articulating her vision.

Assembling her team.

Asking for funding…

You get my drift…

The singer Alicia Keys once remarked, “Everything you want to be, you already are. You're simply on the path to discovering it.”

That describes my friend.  She was and has been always designed for what she is now doing, she just needed to START.  And now many women and many families are going to benefit because she was courageous enough to remember…The Spirit God gave us does not make us afraid…2 Timothy 1:7 (ERV)…and she COULD START!

What about you?

Feel like something inside you needs to be done?  

Have you been dreaming about a new work, an awesome idea, a way to impact, something that will bring needed change?

Perhaps today is the day to be courageous and START.  

Even if it just seeking GOD a little more diligently and intentionally.  

But don’t “NOT START”.  

I will be honest; this message is for me too.  I have some things that NEED TO START.  

So, I am taking my start steps too.

In closing, Keys also said, “Sometimes you need to start again, in order to fly.”

My friend A.R. is certainly “flying” this morning. 

The question is, “Are we ready to fly too"?

We just got to START.

I love you all

Opportunities for Hope