What do you do when you are overwhelmed by some big project or life event?
Whether it is a new health crisis, life without someone we love, the last push to finish some unforgiving deadline, or enduring another difficult activity; the overwhelming largeness of what lies ahead steals energy without replacing it.
A couple of weeks ago, I shared how I learned early in my young adult life that God wanted a large investment in my beginnings. (See What God Creates) I understood that whether it was a new job, a new writing project, or a new place to live; God wanted my beginning to take me where His abundance and contentment could fill it.
I am easily overwhelmed when life requires careful juggling of time or priorities. It can paralyze me into non-action. It’s like stopping at a stop light and ignoring the green light when I stall at the expense of others who depend on me.
Can I do this? Will I make it? What happens if I can’t?
They are all the questions of self-doubt sent by the Tempter to sabotage my beginning.
But God has another Word that I learned to tuck away in my heart.
Read it with me from Zechariah 4:10 from the The Living Bible where I first discovered it.
Do not despise these small beginnings,
for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
God celebrates small beginnings. He is my cheerleader when I just begin!
My small beginning might be setting calendar goals. It might be writing through my first thoughts instead of outlining the whole assignment. It might be cleaning out a drawer or shelf instead of tackling the whole room. Every time I stare down the overwhelming whole that tries to bully me into non-action and make a small beginning, a settled benediction covers me. It is God rejoicing, encouraging me, giving me that “Atta girl!” I need.
I’ve experienced it in work projects, schedule demands, as well as in the spiritual growth my heart craves.
Just make a beginning, Debbie. Find a step that will pull you into the next step. Don’t eat the elephant whole. Take it one bite at a time. That’s what I have learned to tell myself.
And that’s what I tell you. God is a new beginning expert. He made the whole world from emptiness and void. He takes a person tangled in anger, trapped in despair, lost in the sin of self-determination and makes them brand new from the inside out. Don’t you think that He knows where to start your beginning?
Small beginnings.
One step.
Just start.
Where do you need to remember that there is no beginning that God cannot help you undertake? Where do you need to hear God rejoicing over your tentative first steps? Where does progress mean one piece instead of something big?
Take that step today and hear your Father clap. He will always be your best cheerleader, especially in the small beginnings because He knows what they cost you.
Sharing the journey,
Debbie