This was a the 4th part of a four-part tag-team teaching Ruth and I did this past weekend encouraging people to “start something” unique to their vantage point on the world. There is much scripture here which I haven’t highlighted today, but I am sure many of you will know what is quoted and what is original.
by Ruth Wilkinson
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
All things were created through Him,
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created.
Life was in Him,
and that life was the light of men.
That light shines in the darkness,
yet the darkness did not overcome it.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering like a mother hen over the surface of the waters.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Then God said, “Let Us make humanity in Our image, according to Our likeness. To watch over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl.”
So God created humanity in His own image;
He created them in the image of God; He created them male and female.
And that’s how God started something.
He sat in His own infinity of light and love and He imagined time.
He imagined energy and matter.
He imagined life and diversity
and he imagined us.
Having imagined us, he made us
to be just like him.
He made us to watch over creation and to watch over each other.
He made us to look into emptiness and see possibility.
To see something new.
He made us to see what could be.
He made us to imagine.
To ask, “What if?”
What if I said something? What if I did something?
What if I sat down next to her, opened that door,
asked for permission?
What if I challenged the status quo?
What would happen?
Well, what happened when God started something?
It began well. It began with life and love, understanding, friendship and community.
And then?
Then, somebody stuck their oar in.
Somebody with big ideas and ambition. Somebody who thought they knew better.
Then there was division and disagreement, grief and separation.
But God didn’t walk away. Didn’t give up. He kept on looking into the darkness and seeing what could be.
He kept working. Kept reaching out.
Because he has a goal. There is something that only He can accomplish. He knows that only He can bring us back to where we belong – next to Him.
When we start something, when we turn our “What ifs” into action,
—we take a chance – on the people we work with, on the circumstances that will arise, on ourselves.
People drive us crazy. Circumstances conspire against us.
We disappoint ourselves.
All we can do, the best we can do is remember…
There is a reason we tried in the first place. There is something that we can do. Maybe not only you.
But definitely you.
God is still walking us through His plan, his story from eternity to eternity.
Jesus kept walking through the plan, from birth to resurrection.
And he walks alongside us and within us and for us.
It’s been said that the difference between a good idea and a vision is that a vision is something you can’t not do. Something that fills you with fire and won’t let go.
If that is where you find yourself, struggling to find the courage to step out,
keep this in mind…
God doesn’t call you to go anywhere he hasn’t already been himself.
He knows our weakness,
our strength.
Everything we can experience,
He has experienced in the flesh.
He has been there and He will help.
There is a time for every activity under Heaven-
a time to plant and a time to uproot;
a time to tear down and a time to build;
a time to be silent and a time to speak;
This I know… that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
When we will see a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth will have passed away,
and the sea will no longer exist.
When He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Death will no longer exist;
grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer.
When the One seated on the throne will say,
“Look! I am making everything new.”
Christianity 201 
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