Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Start Me Up...



Start : To begin or set out, as on a journey or activity.

We are always starting over, starting again, restarting, jump starting.  As long as it includes the word "start" I am good.  Of course, ending can be a good word too, as in the end of the road, end of an ordeal or “The End”.  We want to avoid "It ended badly".

Starting means there is movement; something happening, possibilities, things to look for ahead.  Of course, we can start and never move past that point.  Projects we have started, jobs we started, relationships started, education started - but somehow we never followed through.

So along with the word start, I like completion.
Completion:  Conclusion, fulfillment - having every necessary part or element; entire.

We start something and we see it through.  Completion can be different than "finished" as we can “Be finished with that" and it may mean we started but never completed something.


Life is a series of starts, stalls, stops, finishes and hopefully completions.  Starting and completing one thing always leads to another as we should never be quite "done".  To live we must continue on to the next thing, expanding our mind, our views, our love and lives.  Life is about movement, expansion, cycles, seasons.

I have heard several sermons that included the words "Before God started the world, He finished it", meaning He had it all planned before He put it in motion - made escapes for all our mishaps, solutions for all our problems. No "new" thing we humans think up had not been already perceived by God and He made sure to have a solution for it.  


I ponder that periodically.  Now, I don't happen to think that it means we have no choice in our lives or that all is "preplanned", therefore making no difference in how we live as it will all end up the same.  No I think that what it means is that God has created a place for us to make choices, mistakes, walk paths, explore possibilities and have a great time doing it.  Life is a grand journey and there is no "one" road that will take us to our life's purpose.  I happen to believe if your road includes a heart felt seeking of God, then you are on the right one. God will take care of the rest.

The road you take may be too steep for me and the road I am on may not have enough scenery for you.  Thats one of the cool things about God, we are all created uniquely and the possibilities are endless and anything but boring.  I don't think the people who believe we all have to do it the same way have read much of the bible, as it is filled with people finding their path and purpose in God many different ways. Jesus was the best example of not doing things the accepted way and His path is the one I choose to follow.

One of the great lessons I have learned in life is a quote from a sermon heard many years ago: "All that I know is not all there is to know".  A lesson learned more recently is my own quote:  "All that you know is not all there is to know".  Its the combination of many you's and me's that make it complete. There we are, back to the concept of "completion".

Some things take a lifetime to complete, other things can be done in shorter time spans. Your completion of a task may not have the same end result as my completion of that same task.  The only sure thing is that the completion of one always leads us to another and our challenge is to recognize where we should focus our energies.  We just have to start somewhere.


Sue Barnard
August 2012