²¹ When all the people were being baptized…
                                                            Luke 3:21
 
Yesterday we shared that we’re looking at the start of Jesus’s ministry to see how he overcame common distractions and challenges at the beginning that would have derailed any one of us. We’re hoping to learn principles that might help all of us to get off to a good start in 2019.
 
Jesus’s opening scene starts with his cousin John, who’s proclaiming the kingdom of God and calling people everywhere to repent, turn away from sin and darkness, and to embrace the love and Lordship of God.
 
Throughout the gospels, the ‘crowds’ aren’t always great models of what faithfulness looks like. But here we can learn something from them. Luke records that the people hear a word from God and they act. They respond. Decisively. Deliberately. Publicly.
 
God’s words and God’s work always require response from us. This is easier for some of us than others.
 
Some of us are slow to respond, slow to act, slow to commit…slow. That’s not a bad thing (you probably make better decisions than most people most of the time) until it is a bad thing. Until your foot on the brake keeps you from pressing the gas pedal of obedience that would lead you into joy and into participating in God’s mission to bring healing and restoration to a broken world.
 
The reality for all of us at different points in our walk with Jesus is there will be something we know we need to do that we’ll be hesitant to do.  Maybe we just don’t want to do it. Maybe it’s distasteful to us. Maybe we’re just scared.
 
In the passage today, the people are responding to what they know is God’s word to them and what they know that God wants them to do. There is no other way into the blessed life with God other than to take concrete steps of faithful action.
 
Can you think of one specific, concrete thing that you know God would have you to do that you’ve put off or have been hedging on?  How about you do that today?