Moving Forward Starts With The First Step
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
We’ve spent the last few days talking about the American Dream. This wasn’t supposed to be the focus. My real intent was to challenge (or stretch) readers to start thinking beyond themselves and the comforts of their everyday lives. My hope is that I might challenge readers to become curious and even eager about developing a mission mindset.
We can accept the status quo, or we can do something about it. In other words, we can keep going in the same old direction, or we can seek to cultivate a mission mindset.
It’s a scary proposition. As we discussed earlier, it’s not easy to break free from the patterns in our lives. And it’s natural to fear the unknown of what lies ahead when we consider acting on a desire for a missions.
Let me encourage you. Faith is not about knowing all the details about the steps in front of us. It’s about trusting God in the next step. We often want to know the whole path in front of us before we are willing to move. We over think, and we soon develop a paralysis of analysis. We allow our fear of the unknown to hold us captive in the confines of the “comfortable.” And we ultimately fail to act on the faith we profess.
Faith is nothing without action. I can believe until I’m blue in the face, but it’s nothing if I don’t follow through on it. James says it well:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:14-17
In the coming days, I hope to share more of my own journey of faith. In addition, I will help you identify a way you can take a practical step forward in developing a mission mindset right where you are.