100 Days to Brave: Just Start

Sometimes, life feels a little too ordinary and understated. We go about our days as if nothing meaningful could ever happen to us. We’re held back by fear and what if’s and we decide that we’ll never be able to live the life that we actually want. We decide that we aren’t brave.

What does it mean to be brave?

Is it the way that you speak, or stand, or carry things. Is it about power, or fame, or making a major difference in the world? Or, does it have more to do with small acts of courage than grand gestures of leadership? What if being brave is possible in our ordinary, everyday life? What if being brave meant small steps and simple moments? What if being brave was for right here, right now?

~ Annie

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Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” — 1 Samuel 17:37 NIV

I think the hardest thing about writing is the blank page. Or computer screen. It’s said that 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.

It’s so hard to start, whether it’s writing a book, training for a 5K, or any other dream you may have. To start the journey toward that thing — I don’t know what it is for you — is 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.

Those little seeds of courage have been growing in your heart for weeks, maybe years. Then at some point your heart began to beat with a different rhythm, and now here you are, ready to take the first brave step.

You just have to start, my friend.

That thing that is whispering on your insides? Maybe for you it’s writing a note. Singing a song. Making a phone call. Having a conversation. Composing a story. Writing a check. Booking that trip. Sending an e-mail. Going on a date. Reading a book. Signing up.

I’m trying to list as many options as possible, but you know the thing God is doing in your life better than I do. It’s time to get quiet before the Lord and ask Him what it looks like for you to live a life of courage today.

Just start.

Be Brave: What does it look like for you to take a step of courage today that will help you start?

Excerpted with permission from 100 Days to Brave by Annie F. Downs, copyright Annie F. Downs.

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Your Turn

What do you know you need to start doing? What have you been putting off because of a nagging, handicapping fear that you won’t succeed, or you won’t be accepted, or you’ve never done it before and it’s daunting? Come share with us what step of courage you’re taking today! We want to hear from you! ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full

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