Five Minute Friday: First

I stare at this white screen with a blank mind.

Much like I often stare at the treadmill, or stare at a article to read, or a care plan to grade.

The first step is always the hardest.

Once I get it over with, that first word typed or the first step or the first highlight, I'm usually okay.

I spend more time dreading things than I do actually doing them.

I'm a major procrastinator. I usually put things off until the last minute... usually because I don't know what to do first.  What if it's the wrong thing? Or what if that first step trips me up? Better to just keep putting it off...

I think of Abraham, taking that first step to a country he knew nothing about. No GPS. No map. No cell phone. No weather forecast. Just him, his family... and His God.

And taking that first step up the mountain with Isaac. With his son, who wasn't his firstborn, but who was to get the firstborn inheritance. Except God was sending him to sacrifice him. Are you being serious, God?

That first time binding his son to place him in the altar.

"What does this mean, Dad? What are you doing? Are you crazy in your old age? Without me you have nothing. Your descendants are supposed to number the sky. How will that happen if I'm dead?"

(Or maybe he said nothing at all. We're not really told.  I'm not sure I want to imagine.)

And then... that first bleat. The ram in the bushes. The provision, not the first time that God had shown his provision to Abraham, but most likely the one Abraham would remember on his death bed.

A series of firsts... because Abraham wasn't afraid. He trusted in God.

May I commit my firsts to Him as well.

Chiming in on five minute Fridays, where we use one word as a prompt to write for five minutes, unedited (although I will admit I cheated a little and forgot to set my timer). Today's word??? FIRST