When Do We Start?

The Hardest Step

For many projects, getting started can be the most difficult step. One can spend a surprisingly large amount of time “preparing” or purposing to start “soon.” When it comes to one’s choice to become a better student of the Word of God there too exists a starting point, and this step of starting can be a difficult one. This should seem counterproductive, for Bible study provides the richest rewards for one’s own life, but it also requires commitment and effort – two things that do not come naturally.

An Advantage

For those who begin their spiritual journey as a teenager or young adult, (as the vast majority do), there is a distinct advantage. With at least the possibility of a full long life, there exists many years open for spiritual growth and maturity. But this can lead to an attitude of postponement, putting “deeper study” off until adulthood.

New Pressures

Once reaching adulthood and leading into middle age, there are more pressures put on one’s life. Marriage and children may come along, providing the ripest time for spiritual maturity, as this is the time when the very roots of belief in God and a future Christian life are ready to be planted into a young child’s heart. But family life can be a busy one, especially with other newfound responsibilities in both the office and in the home, and this can lead to an attitude of postponement, putting “deeper study” off until the later years.

New “Free Time”

After children grow and leave the home to follow a path of their own choosing, the home can become an emptier and quiet place. With the coming of retirement the stresses of the office and the many of the demands of life disappear. There is more free time for hobbies and other pursuits, and there is also more time for the study of God’s Word, albeit without as strong a foundation as those who have studied for years. However, with waning health and less energy, it can become more difficult to engage in that “deeper study” that was always intended.

Never Getting Started

This presents a pretty bleak synopsis of a life which never “got started” on the most important thing, although the intention to do so always existed. What makes this synopsis a real tragedy is not just that “deeper study” never did come; it is that it never started. There will always be distractions in life, but there will not always be the time to grow spiritually. The time to start is right now.