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Choices, Chances, and Changes

                The keys were on the table.  The truck was in the driveway.  I had never driven a standard transmission vehicle before, but how hard could it be?

                I had just turned sixteen years old and I was watching my uncle and aunt’s house while they were away.  No one was there to stop me, so I grabbed the truck keys and decided to give it a try.

                I started the engine, put the truck in reverse, let the clutch out, and slowly backed out into the street.  After a herky-jerky start in first gear, I made it all the way around the block, stalling the engine only as I tried to climb the curb to get the truck back in the driveway.  It was not perfect, but I had learned something.

                Life most often comes down to choices, chances, and changes.  You must make a choice to take a chance or nothing will change.  You can read, think, dream, wish, and hope, but until you do something, you will never experience anything new.

                Unfortunately, too often, we are so scared of doing something incorrectly that we do nothing at all.  Yet, ironically, the only way to become good at something is to be bad at it first.  As a friend of mine used to say, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly”.  In other words, doing something imperfectly is better than not doing it at all. 

                Maybe the last few months have convinced you that you need a new beginning.  Maybe you have thought that it is time to see things through a different lens.  Maybe you are looking to get to know God, and his love, better.

                If any of that is true, Psalm 34:8 has a recommendation for you: “Taste and see that the Lord is good!”   In other words, take a chance!  Give it a try.  See what happens. 

                Nothing changes unless we make a choice and take a chance.

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