Just Start // Let’s All Be Brave

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The opening paragraph to Annie’s letter in Just Start speaks volumes to what I’ve been experiencing lately, especially when it has come to filling this space with words for you to read.

“It’s said to be a writer is to have homework every day for the rest of your life. You remember that feeling, don’t you? When you have a paper to write or an assignment to turn in and you know you can do it if you can just. get. started… I know what I want to say. I just often don’t know where to start.”

As you’ve read in her first letter to us in An Honest Moment, this is a book that you can easily fall in love with. There’s just something about the “realness” of Annie’s words that makes it difficult to stop only a few pages in. You. want. to. read. more!

But what has really grasped my heart is the similarities of her stories to my own heart. As I read these pages, I sense that Annie is putting into words the yearnings and desires that I often times do not know how to express myself. I’ve even laughed aloud at some of the word choices she uses because I can picture myself saying the same thing.

Is that weird? Or do you sense this too?

I’ve felt stuck in more areas of my life than just writing this post (which I admit has been written, deleted and rewritten at least five times – don’t worry, I’m calling Perfectionists Anonymous tomorrow). Is it just a season that I’m going through or a perpetual dry spell? All I know is my career, my lack of a love life, and my bank account have me feeling all kinds of stuck.

My goals and dreams seem unreachable, at least from where I’m currently standing. And how will I ever begin to reach them when I don’t know which road to take, what mountain to climb, or what ocean to cross?

Do you feel that way too? Do you feel cemented to the ground in fear of the unknown, the possibility, and the potential for failure?

“To start the journey toward that thing… I don’t know what it is for you, but it’s not a journey to courage. The moment you take that first step, the moment you start, little seeds of courage, the ones I believe are already planted there right now, begin to sprout in your heart. You aren’t headed out to find courage. It’s in you, it is blooming, and it is with you as you travel and say yes to things that seem scary.”

We’ve got to start somewhere. We’ve got to take that initial step and believe that the next one, though it may be hard and may freak us the heck out, is only moving us that much closer to a life lived bravely, as we embrace the life we were called to live. The life of our hopes, the life of our dreams, and the life that God designed us to be living.

As each of us take those first steps, we’re not venturing out alone. We have each other to rely on for support when we all become weary travelers. But that’s not all. God will be there with us, guiding and cheering for every step that is taken and every fear that is overcome.