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Jan 29, 2023 06:00am

The First Step

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One of the scariest things for those of us who try to convey our thoughts through the written word is the blank sheet of paper staring at us before we start putting our thoughts on it. It is so difficult that we often put off getting started until the pain of not meeting a deadline is greater than the pain of that scary, white abyss!

As a former editor, another challenge for me was finding just the right title to get the attention of the reader so they’d actually read what I had finally written. Charles Stanley summed up the answer to this entire problem with the title of one of his sermons (one of my favorite titles of all times) — “Putting Off Procrastination!”

When we are faced with a challenging situation, the hardest part is getting started, which is what I’m doing right now even though God reminded me that “delayed obedience is disobedience!” (“It is sin to know the good and yet not do it,” James 4:17 CSB.)

What are you putting off? Is it a special project at work, a chore at home that you hate, learning a new skill or having that discussion with someone you don’t want to have? What are you afraid of? For most of us, it’s the fear of failing. But the biggest failure of all is the failure to try. Like John Quincy Adams said, “Try and fail, but don’t fail to try!”

The hardest part is often taking that first step toward our goal. I remember facing that challenge back in October of 1959, when I was not quite 12 years old. I knew I needed to be saved, and I knew what I needed to do, but doing it was another matter entirely!

The church is gone now, replaced by a freeway, but the memory is as vivid as ever. I had heard the pastor’s sermon and realized that I was a sinner and needed to confess my sins, ask God to forgive me and accept Jesus as my Savior. So easy, and yet so hard!

I was sitting about three quarters of the way back, toward the middle of the pew, with the sun shining through the stained glass windows. I can still feel the tug of the Holy Spirit on my heart and remember thinking, “If I can just take the first step, that’s all I need to do… take the first step! But my feet felt like they were made of lead. (Satan is good at throwing obstacles in our way and telling us there is “no way we can do it.”) But do it, I did… I took the first step and the next thing I knew I was in the altar, telling my pastor I was lost and needed to be saved. He repeated what I already knew I had to do — realize I am a sinner, confess my sins, ask Jesus to forgive me and invite Him into my heart to take full control of my life. That’s exactly what I did! The first step was hard, no doubt about it, but it changed my life completely.

Jesus has been my Savior for over 63 years, and there have been many of those difficult “first steps” since then. Because of that first step toward Jesus so long ago, I’ve never had to take any other “first steps” alone. He is always with me and gives me what I need.

Was that blank page scary when I stared at it this morning? Oh, yes! But God (my two favorite words in the Bible) has done it again and filled the page with what I hope will be an encouragement to you today. If I got in His way and didn’t say what He wanted, I may have sounded like a fool, but that’s okay because I tried.

And that’s all you need to do today as well: try… take that first step, especially if you are stepping toward salvation. Put off procrastination and accept Jesus now. You’ll never be sorry you did!