Sometimes "IT" Takes a Push Start

Why do most of us put off for tomorrow if we could start “it” today? Maybe we are overwhelmed or under-excited?  Possibly, a full schedule or an empty tank? Unsure where to begin or unclear what it will become? Is it too far to the finish, or are you too close to see a fix? Low on funds or high on the debt of regret? Whether learning to play the guitar, making a home improvement, transitioning jobs or careers, losing unwanted weight, giving generously, raising great kids, having a healthy marriage, volunteering in the community, committing to run a race, or whatever our better “it" is we have a plethora of reasons preventing us from moving forward, but why? Could "it" look too big and extra hard, and we feel too small and prefer easy?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an “easy” button we could push, and we would start doing the thing we have always wanted to do? What if, like when we get in to start our vehicles, we could push the start button, and our journey to the better version of ourselves would begin? In our world today, ease and convenience are the aims of almost every service and product we consume, and I’ll be one of the first to say ease and convenience are wonderful. I am grateful for many of the luxuries those products and services provide, and yet, I wonder if their constant consumption is contributing to our too-big and too-hard mindset. The daily experience of living the easy way, although not without hurts and heartache, may misguide us into becoming content with the status quo and believing it is the best way or the only way. What if, occasionally, the hard way is the good and better way?

Today, many of us can easily start our vehicles with the push of a button, but what happens when it won’t start? When I was a young girl, about 11 or 12, I remember our ole’ Ford Escort not starting after my dad, and I came out from the store. Somehow the battery had died. I can’t recall what caused the battery to die or why we didn’t have any jumper cables, but I remember being embarrassed. I also remember my dad saying he thought there was a way we could start the car without jumper cables. He said, “If we push the car fast enough, we can start it.” He briefly showed me how to pop the clutch and push the brake while shifting gears, or something along those lines. This whole concept was foreign to me as I had grown up in suburbia where you don’t learn the art of driving a stick shift early in life, but desperate times call for desperate measures. After my quick manual driving tutorial, my dad went to the back of the car, started pushing, and yelled “ok, do it”. I tried, but I couldn’t do it. Have you ever tried something new and gave up because you couldn’t get it right?

We tried a couple of times before my dad said, “Let’s switch places, and you try pushing.” Say what? I was in disbelief. I was a fuller-size girl who considered myself strong, but not strong enough to push a car. There was no possible way for me to push the car, especially with my dad, a big guy, in it. I was wrong. It was possible. I stood with my back to the car, lowered my body, and placed my booty on the bumper. I clamped down every muscle from head to toe and drove my heels into the ground as hard as I could. What started as a little rock back and forth became a slow roll forward. It wasn’t much, but it was movement. It wasn’t fast enough to start the car yet, but at least it was moving forward. Within a few moments, a Good Samaritan noticed me struggling. Looking back, I think this guy probably had a hard time deciding between laughing hysterically at the sight of this young girl trying to push the car with a big guy in it or stepping in to help.  Thankfully, he chose to help me, and quickly another Good Samaritan joined us. Within a few minutes, the car was moving and the engine started. I couldn’t believe “it”, we had push-started the car. What had looked too hard, too big, and impossible, was possible, but “it” sure wasn’t easy! Is there something you want to start, but getting started seems impossible?

As much as I would have preferred our car had turned on with the key, or the push of a button, a literal push-start, provided me with newfound keys for starting up difficult mountains of change in my life. I discovered a push start requires a bit of desperation, discomfort, and divine help to move from where we are to where we want to be. Sometimes desperation is dealt to us due to circumstances beyond our control, and sometimes by our own doing. Either way, desperation weeds out excuses and narrows options for a possible solution. For instance, many of us frequent the grocery store of endless options often forgetting what we came for in the first place, but when we are desperate for ice cream, we can find the freezer section quickly. When we are desperate, “real desperate”, we can block out the endless options and start stepping in the right direction to the right section. Often our small, mustard-sized-seed of a step won’t look like enough, but it is just enough to get us started. While we may only see something tiny there is big unseen potential to be unlocked with the keys of discomfort and divine help. Have you ever thought, at this rate, I’ll never get there?

 Chances are slim you have thought of discomfort as a key to anything, let alone big potential, but it is. Consider what we learn as we watch nature grow and strengthen. The seed is planted in the soil, several inches in the dark, and as it struggles through the darkness toward the light it builds the strength needed to grow into a seedling and then a strong oak tree able to weather the storms. The newly formed butterfly struggles desperately to get out of her cocoon yet in her struggle, she develops the strength she needs to take her first beautiful flight. Just like the seed and the butterfly, there is a divine intervention building their strength for new things ahead, and even so, there is discomfort as they transform. When we train for our first race, practice a new song on the guitar, are the first to say “I’m sorry” for a better relationship or uncharacteristically ask for help “it” will initially be uncomfortable and unpleasant. “It’s” new and feeling this way is normal. Have you ever not tried something new because you were uncomfortable?

Knowing discomfort is normal can help us shift our mind from the pain and disappointment of being stuck in neutral to courageously moving into first gear.  Somehow, as we become more comfortable being uncomfortable our belief grows, our endurance develops, and our disappointment is disassembled. Quite often, if we do what we can, with what we have, where we are, we will start slowly moving forward. Sometimes “it” is slower than we want to go, but if we keep pushing, get low, and look up we will see divine help already in motion. As I reflect, I’m AWE-mazed by the many times a much-needed friend was at my side, pushing when I was too tired to push anymore. By grace, help came despite my stubborn pride preventing me from asking for a hand, and I am convinced if I had asked for help sooner, I may have avoided unnecessary discomfort. Some discomfort is required for change, while not all discomfort is needed. Sometimes we receive a helping hand, and other times we give our hand to another in need. The key to seeing divine intervention in action is having a heart humble enough to look up and around while gracefully giving and receiving help. Have you ever sent up a “flare prayer” asking for help and coincidently help arrives, or have you been the answer to someone else’s prayer?

Whether you pray or not, my prayer for you is you are encouraged by the little girl who thought she couldn’t “push start” because “it” was too big and too hard but did “it” anyway despite her disbelief. As you “push start” may you discover the gift of a focused movement born out of desperation, strength grown from discomfort, and the power of divine intervention as you get low, look up and around. May today be the day you courageously push start “it” out of neutral and leverage the momentum to move forward and Live Light-her.