THE 1ST STEP

Today a friend of ours begins an incredible journey for her life. She has cystic fibrosis and she is waiting for a double lung transplant at Vanderbilt Hospital. She told me yesterday, that once she has new lungs, she can live a normal life without being connected to an oxygen machine. She said the doctor called this a window of hope for her, so we are praying and believing God for a miracle…after all, faith only needs a small window to work through.

Right now however, the issue is not the double lung transplant. They told my friend, that before she could get on the list, she would have to walk 750 steps in 6 minutes. For you and I, that doesn’t seem like very much at all, but for someone with cystic fibrosis, at this stage, this is a huge mountain to climb. It takes all the strength she can gather to just walk across the room. Just standing up from the couch yesterday, caused her to feel completely exhausted. The thoughts of 750 steps in 6 minutes feels like entering a 10K marathon for an inexperienced runner.

As she began to tell me and my wife about this process, you could see the stress in her eyes, knowing what was going to begin for her in just a few hours. She told us she didn’t know how long it would take her to get to the goal of 750 steps in 6 minutes, but that she believed God was going to help her and we know that He will too. Not only is God going to help her, but she also has an incredible mother that is standing right by her side cheering her on.

I went to bed praying and thinking about our friend and woke up this morning and started writing about her. After knowing what starts for her today, this is what came to my mind. Today is not about 750 steps in 6 minutes…today is about the 1st step. 750 steps can be overwhelming, but the 1st one is the start. I don’t want her to think about step 200 or step 500…I want her to concentrate on step 1. Her victory in this journey begins with the 1st step.

Somehow I feel like there are others today in a similar situation. Maybe you’re not suffering from the same disease, but you’re facing an overwhelming goal of 750 steps in 6 minutes. You know that once you get past that, life could be much better for you, but you’re just not sure you can do it. Let me just encourage you to not worry about 750 steps, but get ready to take the 1st step. Every great runner started with the 1st step. Your goal is to cross the finish line, but you’ll never get there until you take that 1st step.

So what are you waiting on? Why haven’t you taken that 1st step? Are you so afraid of failure that you won’t even get started? You don’t want to be embarrassed, so you remain completely still and dream without ever taking actions. It is a huge mountain and you will be taking a great risk, but David said in Psalms 119:133 “DIRECT MY STEPS IN YOUR WORD DEAR LORD”. You have to believe that God is with you every step, but you have to take the 1st one.

So while we’re praying for our friend to take the 1st step in her journey of 750 steps, why don’t you do the same? Let this be the day of 1st steps. She doesn’t have to take 750 steps today and neither do you…just get started. Make that call, send that email, write that song, start that business, submit that resume or whatever your 750 steps journey looks like…go for it. The way you get to 750 steps in 6 minutes is by taking the 1st step.

Please remember our friend in your prayers today. We are with her, every step of the way.

This blog is dedicated to the thousands of people with cystic fibrosis.