Untangled

Have you ever known an avid fisherman? They can be pretty particular about their fishing gear.

My Granddaddy loved fishing on streams, rivers, and lakes, but occasionally he came home frustrated after a day of fishing because his line got all tangled up. Instead of cutting the balled up mess from the reel, he would bring it home to Grandma for a rescue.

Clever Grandma

Grandma came from a long line of “un-tanglers”. As the master of all kinds of needle arts, she was accustomed to tangled balls of yarn and twisted, loopy spools of thread. She never threw away anything she could save. Old sweaters got unraveled and knitted into something new; worn out shirts became dust cloths. She tore old, used-up rags into strips and wove them into rugs. Grandma was a rescuer by nature.

During quiet evenings while Granddaddy watched TV or read, Grandma took that fishing line, snipped off the hook and started threading the loose end back through the knots and tangles. A few hours later she had the line straightened out and back on the reel and Granddaddy gratefully put it back into his tackle box.

Find the Starting Point

Does figuring out where to start in your spiritual life feel like holding a tangled ball of fishing line in your hands? There’s so much to do! Where is the starting point with getting into the Bible, prayer, worship, tithing, and serving God?

God knows where you should start: You should start with a loving relationship with him.

God is huge, powerful and mysterious, but what he really wants is great friendships with people. Here’s what the Bible says,

“To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them and chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today.” Deuteronomy 10:14-15

The message for people is this: Before we even knew him, he chose us, loved us and set his affection on us.

Begin at the Beginning

When we begin a new friendship, we usually ask questions like, “Where did you grow up?”, “Tell me about your family.”, “How do you like to spend your days?”

This is how we connect with each other.

It’s the same when we meet with God. He doesn’t want us to come with him with a list of things we must do together. He’s interested in what interests us. God is probably the only person you will ever meet who is absolutely fascinated with everything about you.

Look at Deuteronomy 10:14-15 again.

God feels great affection for you, he loves you and he chose you. You are among his favorite things in the universe. When you get together with him you never irritate him, take too much of his time or keep him from something else. God is never sorry to see you coming and he never wants you to hurry away.

Do you need to tell him the same story today that you told him yesterday? He’s ready to listen. Do you have the same pesky question now that you had before? That’s OK with God; he will keep explaining until you get the answer you need.

Where do you want to start?

When you hand God the knots and tangles in your spiritual life, he will probably say, “Where do you want to start? Let’s start there.”

Then he will give you what you need. Maybe you make a decision to read your Bible and pray each day and God helps you with that. Then someone invites you to join a small group and you find the community you need. Or maybe you hear about a mission project that grabs your heart and you start getting involved.

Watch for whatever God sends your way because that will be him showing you where to begin and what to do next.

Wherever you start, if you begin with what your hearts wants to do, everything else will fall into place. Take the loose end that is most appealing to you and start following it. One thing will lead to another until you find yourself living a rich spiritual life.

Photo by Coleman-Byrne at Unsplash.com