Ready, set - comes before GO . . .

Thinking, chewing over how getting going in life and projects, requires getting ready to get started. Not just starting. You’ve probably guessed it I’m ruminating; my thinking’s “germ” flows from earlier lessons, experiences, and workabilities . . .

Sports were a feature of boyhood days in my neighbourhood; not mere sports in general, athletic sports in particular. In reality, the athletic sport of running. We all got involved, not all succeeded. I was one of the unsuccessfully involved.  But thanks to my brother’s pressure and our mother’s “authority,” I was involved. I was a consistent competitor, starter, finisher, constantly “first at the wrong end;” not a looser, a finisher.  See positive thinking is a life-long practice with me; also learned early, being a “moaner” is counterproductive.

Kit-requirements were minimal. Footwear, bare feet; I was OK for them, born with a pair. Singlet, again OK; put on a clean one every other day. White shorts; duly purchased by mum from the “Family Benefit” allowance.

Each race started with the call to take-up our marks. Settling into our starting stances we listened for three directions; ready, set, go. Go was the point the timekeeper made the first click on her stopwatch, we were running; but for us competitors that was not when the race started. Ready, set - comes before GO . . . for the runner, that’s where the race starts.

In reflection, methinks life’s like this, things start long before I’m seen to be exerting “running energy.”  I take up my mark, settling into a starting place with the finishing goal or purpose in mind. To finish well, I need “marked-perspective” at both ends of the run (aka “race”). I “run my mental and spiritual checklists”  . . . 

• What’s my capacity?

• What does completion look like?

• Will my convictions and actions go in the same direction for the duration?  

Ready - pay attention, I ask myself, “did my run-of-the-checklists increase expectancy or create aversion?”

• If it’s “YES- no” I’m ready for set; if “NO-yes” . . .  . . . ?”

Set says; “be steady, be still, don’t move, rest - but ensure you don’t relax”

GO - time is now running in the race I’d started back when “ready was called” . . .

“Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward - to Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not turning back.  So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision - you'll see it yet!  Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it.  Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal” . . .  Philippians 2:13-17 (Message Bible).

PS – Short sprints were not my race. By my 16th birthday I was only 4’ 11” in height (150cm); by next birthday I was 179cm. Later joined a harriers’ club and enjoyed "going greater distances in community and coming home with others at the right end” – longer legs make for a longer race . . .

Now there’s another rumination possibility . . .