Saturday-Start, Stop, vs. Go

For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.

1 Peter 3:10

When it comes to living, I’m not just good at starting, I’m really great. Tell me something to do and I can immediately start doing it. Whether it’s a suggestion for my golf swing or a new recipe for cooking Chinese stir-fry, I can follow directions. Show me what to do and I’ll start imitating you.

Yes, starting is really easy for me to start down a new path. But to keep doing it is something altogether different. I don’t know if it’s something in the way I’m made or a habit I picked up somewhere along the way of life, but it’s really hard for me to keep doing something. Anything.

The easiest thing for me is to fall back into old habits. Yes, I started living a new way, but then I just can’t seem to keep it up. It only takes me a little while to slide back into the way I was doing things. It’s just so confusing.

As I look at my life, I just can’t help wishing I was more like my computer or phone. Download an app or some upgrade, and it immediately starts acting differently. Click the “Accept” button and it changes forever. It never goes back to the old way of doing things.

Even my car works like this. I got an update the other day and the screen on my car started working differently. It was easier to control the air conditioning and fan speed. But the best thing was that the screen turned red when there was a car next to me. It warned me not to change lanes without shouting, “Hey, stupid. Watch out. There’s a car right next to you.”

I really wish that I could start something and keep it up. To change once and for all, not slipping back into the way I’ve been doing things for so long. To start down a new path in life and not jump back onto the old road that caused so much pain and sorrow for so many people.

Does any of this sound familiar? Do these words and desires for change echo in your hear and heart also? If I was a betting man, I’d go “all in.” I’d push all my chips into the center of the poker table of life, betting that we all feel the same way.

Peter wants us to experience a changed life. But not the kind of change that’s immediately followed by failure. It’s a life that keeps on changing. Keeps moving forward. And his advice is so good because it helps us avoid getting stuck in the mud of failure. He doesn’t want the super glue of disappointment to stop us from becoming who God wants us to be.

That’s why he writes these very important words. It doesn’t start with continually doing the right things, but to continually wanting to do them. We need to keep our focus on the future by looking at the person and work of Jesus on the cross. This is how we keep our desire to change from growing old. Getting stale.

If anyone has earned the right to tell us this, it’s got to be the Apostle Peter. You know, the guy who saw that Jesus came to save us from our sins. He called Jesus the Son of the living God. And for this, Jesus changes his name to Peter, the “rock[1]. He started out so well. So strong.

But then he didn’t just trip up a little bit. He didn’t stumble and then catch himself. Not on your life. He fell face-first. He failed in a really, really big way. He brags how he’ll never deny Jesus[2]. And then he runs away from a young girl in the night who thinks that he’s a follower of Jesus. After Jesus looks at him, Peter is crushed and runs away in shame[3].

Early one morning about three months ago I tripped and fell in a dark parking lot, landing hard on my right knee. But something worse happened than just losing some skin and bleeding a little bit. In four days from now, I’m scheduled to have total knee replacement surgery on that same knee. That fall had some very serious consequences.

But Peter’s spiritual fall and my physical fall have many things in common. When they happened, the pain was immediate and like fire burning into us. Yes, we were sorry that it happened, but there was no immediate fix. And we both needed someone else to begin the healing. We both needed a doctor. I needed a surgeon and Peter needed Doctor Jesus.

Yes, there are many very good surgeons who could perform the operation to replace my knee. But there’s only one true doctor for our soul. There’s only one who’s both fully God and fully man[4]. There’s only one who’s felt all the pain and sorrow of this life but never sinned[5]. He’s the only one who can give us the once-and-for-all spiritual heart transplant we so desperately need[6]. He’s the only one who will always say “go” to us because he will never leave us or abandon us[7].

Noodling Questions

• List three things that you’ve started and didn’t finish.

• Describe your feelings when someone doesn’t keep their promise to you.

• How can God keep on forgiving and restoring us? Doesn’t he get tired of it?

[1] Matthew 16:16-18

[2] Matthew 26:33

[3] Luke 22:54-62

[4] John 10:30

[5] Hebrews 4:15

[6] Ezekiel 36:26

[7] Deuteronomy 31:6 NASB