As someone just past thirty years old, I’ve handled several of the “big, scary moments” in life that most all of us face. The first day of high school, check. Didn’t get beat up. The pizza was a rectangle. Moving away and living on your own, check. Asking a girl to marry you, check. Just over ten years in and going strong. Having a kid, check. Still not qualified to be a parent, but it’s okay! Step out and do something life altering with your family/career/ministry, check.
Not sure that everyone does that last one, but we all have those big, scary moments in our lives. Personally, we interact with them. We deal with them in our businesses, ministry, cities, etc. Even though they’re all different, they’re almost the same.
I remember taking my driving test like it was yesterday. I was a pretty smart kid and test-taking wasn’t normally a big deal. If it was geography or English, no problem, but they’re asking me to parallel park. I was so nervous. So scared. I thought I’d fail in an epic fashion, which would have been quite traumatic, considering I was young for my grade making me the last person to get their license. All I really needed was to put that off another 90 days because I don’t come to a complete stop at the four-way-stop. So, I get in the car with this fantastic older lady and away we go. We drive around for a bit, she doesn’t say much other than where to turn and such. When we got done with our little joy ride and were back in the parking lot, I was a wreck. Palms sweaty. Knees weak. Arms are heavy. Mom’s spaghetti. You get the picture. When I asked her, “How’d I do?” I remember her looking at me as she said, “Aside from being a nervous wreck, you did great.” I did it! License time. Ah yeah!
I’ve learned in life that when it comes to those big moments, you can prepare all you want, work hard, and try to figure it all out. You can stress and worry, but it won’t do anything. I’ve learned you’re never really ready. In one capacity you’re completely ready, excited and beyond ready for it to be here, but at the exact same time, you’re never really ready.
The same is true in taking steps of faith for God. Whatever that might mean: leading in ministry, giving financially, bringing a friend, starting a church. You’re never really ready. You’ve never got it all worked out. You’ve never got it all figured out. You’re never really ready, and that’s just fine.
God responds to our action, not our intention.
When Abraham made on of his big steps of faith, Moses wrote in Genesis that he was instructed by God to “go out from your home. Go out from your family and friends. Go to the land I will show you.” Not the one I have shown you. No, we’d be ready for that. Go to the one that later on, once you’ve left, when you’re overwhelmed and stressed, confused and tired, the one that (probably in a moment like that) I will show you.
I know that’s true for me. Everything I’ve ever been a part of stepping out and starting has been filled with that unsettling combination of feeling as prepared as possible and totally not being ready. Of knowing we must start and wondering why we’re even trying. I’m learning that’s okay because I’ll never really be ready. I’ll never be all the way there. I’ll never be totally good to go. God didn’t ask me to get ready to go; He just asked me to go. We’ll get ready on the way.
The same is true for you. Maybe there’s something in your life you know you need to do. A ministry you need to launch, a conversation you need to have, a thing you need to start, or a girl you need to holler at. Here’s what I know, you’re never really ready but that’s okay because God is always faithful, and if He said go, pack your bags, and get to steppin’.
