These days finding the way forward with your faith, inside or outside of the church is a frustrating process. Its not that there are no answers out there, in fact the problem may be just the opposite. There are few things more annoying than getting an answer to a question that your pretty sure you weren’t asking.

I admit, I love talking about faith, and where to go next with it, how to express my faith more fully and abundantly.  In church leadership this question of where to go next, or what we “should” be doing, and how to get there is well worn territory.  So in the midst of thinking about the how what and where of moving forward and reaching toward the finish line of some vision (whatever the goal may be), I’d like to offer a brief respite from all of that.

Lets do that, by dwelling not on the finish line, but rather by dwelling on the starting line.  In my experience it is very easy to get drawn into envisioning wonderful and creative answers for our lives, that can become disconnected from our lives.  And unfortunately this ‘possibility thinking’, by whatever name it goes by, inside or outside the church bleeds over into our spiritual lives.

Let me be clear, this is not a call to stop dreaming and questioning and envisioning.  Rather it is an invitation to stop looking for these answers long enough to make sure you are asking the questions from a good and faithful place.  Or another way to say it, we need to remember that without a starting line, the finish line makes no sense.  The starting line is the environment that deeply determines your trajectory, it determines which race you are running, including the way you view future possibilities.

So where do you build your house of faith?  Where do you put down the foundations to create a spiritual home?  Maybe the starting line is here in the streets of need like Julie Clawson? (hat tip to Steve Knight)

Think about her story and who do you find your heart going out to? Who can you connect with?

Maybe its here, finding a home in a humbling walk with God.  In what Kathy Escobar calls downward mobility, her starting line begins as she  connects with insecure and shattered spirits, including her own.

I’ll highlight that last line:

“One thing we all have in common is a deep need to be loved and to love, so really that’s the starting point”

What is your starting point?  Honestly, where is your starting point?

Because maybe how you think about where you are going and envisioning how you’ll finish is not the right question.  Maybe the really important question to answer in your life is where are you starting?

Where you begin is where your faith will build its home, so discern your starting place faithfully and gracefully.

It will make a deep difference in how you’re running the race, the people your running it with, and who you’re running it for…

peace and grace,

-D