Zero to One

One of the hardest things to do in life is to start something. When it comes to healthy habits, it's incredibly hard to start dieting or picking a day to visit a gym. It's a lot of work to be honest. Picking a day; getting enough rest the night before; selecting the right (aka cool) gym outfit; buying a sufficient (aka cool) water bottle; choosing the right time of the day to go. It can be overwhelming.

I've found this to be true in the religious world as well. People have an even harder time going from nothing to something. After all, that's the principle behind this blog title. Getting started can become the greatest leap known to mankind. I've often wondered if this principle is why churches bend as much as they can, hoping to not break, just so their members feel cared for.

Recently I've found myself wondering how this principle would have interacted with Jesus and his approach. Jesus showed up on scenes with great intention teaching something that seemed foreign in most ways. Jesus showed up calling all sorts of unlikely people to leave everything behind to follow him. Isn't that still amazing to consider? His principle was give me your full allegiance or nothing at all. The zero to one idea in the gospels gives us a different perspective.

This call to follow Jesus feels extremely weighty if our willpower is all it takes. Isn't that how we approach everything else in life? But here's the thing: we cannot muster enough willpower to follow Jesus without it going the way of the New Year's resolution. Which is why faith is so essential to this principle as it counters the ways of the world. It takes faith to believe just as much as it takes faith to follow. That is the principle for all believers of the Christian religion.

We go from nothing to faith without having to conjure up something into existence. While it's magical to feel like a true innovator, it's fools gold when it comes to following Jesus. God gives us faith so that Jesus is followed. So our starting position is where we begin every day anew. Go to bed in faith; wake up in faith.