I am a starter. I am not a finisher.
I start a lot of books that I never finish. I start a lot of projects that I never complete. I start a lot of to-do lists that I never accomplish. And, when I come to the realization that I’ve once again started something that I do not have the time, resources or motivation to finish, I become defeated. So disappointed and overwhelmed that I completely give up, throwing in the towel and moving on with life without the growth or change that I initially hoped I would encounter.
To those of you like me who, at the end of February, have long since abandoned the goals or resolutions you made on January 1st, here is some advice someone once gave to me that I would like to pass along.
Master the restart.
I am learning to become a restarter.
To pick up the book that I started several weeks ago (and haven’t touched since) and start reading. To keep working on that project that I started over a year ago. To revisit the list of goals I made in January and start working towards one.
Like the good Christian that I am, one of my January 1st goals was to start a Bible reading plan. And, you guessed it, I haven’t followed through. Usually, I would just give up. “Better luck next year!” The thing is, luck doesn’t have anything to do with it (and I definitely shouldn’t wait 10 more months before reading my Bible again).
Instead, master the restart.
I’m learning to just pick up my Bible and read it. Today. Right now. It doesn’t have to be the passage scheduled for today on my Bible reading plan. It doesn’t have to be where I last left off. It doesn’t have to be for 60 uninterrupted minutes at the break of dawn with a view of the sunrise through my kitchen window and a steaming mug of coffee on the table to the left of my Bible. There are no rules, only preconceived notions, of what our Bible reading should look like.
For me and my failed Bible reading plan, mastering the restart means changing my ideas of Bible reading. Picking up my Bible and reading it for 10 minutes over my lunch break. Or listening to the Bible in my car. It means, when I mindlessly pick up my phone to scroll through social media, I open my Bible app instead.
Mastering the restart means to start where you’re at with what you have – and to start right now. Don’t wait for the time to be right or for your situation to change.
Jesus, in His endless mercy towards us, meets us right in the middle of our mess and with the unimpressive mustard seed of faith that we bring. And He meets us here, right now. He doesn’t wait for us to be right or for our situation to change.
So, wherever you are with whatever you’ve started and not finished, master the restart.