How to Employ the Power of Baby Steps

Our fast-paced culture forces a divide, it seems, between those all in and those wavering. It feels as if we must choose a path, and stick with it—charge full-steam ahead, or jump off the train. The things that require patience and a long-view perspective chaff our aspiration for efficiency and productivity. We want to grow and become all that we can be but rarely do we accept the slow progress of baby steps as acceptable.

But perhaps we’ve gotten it backwards. Perhaps the things worth growing are worth the time they take to grow. Perhaps patience produces something softer in our spirit than the things we gain and earn and learn on the run.

Perhaps slowing down helps us discover what’s really worth living for.

Perhaps elevating the pace over the direction means that we are going fast but getting nowhere.

Perhaps slow is sincere. Sustainable. Transformative.

Perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at the power of baby steps.

When missional living feels intimidating

We compare without even intending to sometimes. Our progress against theirs. Our life against hers.

We’re distracted from what we really want to pursue because we can’t help but notice all the people who appear closer than we are to our end goal. And we can forget our end goal in the process.

I’ve been there, wishing away my current life and house furnishings and introverted personality. Wishing I could learn how to be fluently missional overnight.

When I was first introduced to the concept of missional living, I thought I had to go from my current way of living to one radically different all at the same time. The dream to live on mission produced angst because it felt too big. Too intimidating. Too far out of reach for an introverted mom with toddler girls stuck in a starter home we didn’t even own.

If you, too, have felt the pull towards missional living but have shelved it because it’s for other people and not you, welcome, friend! This unrest of no longer being content to continue living the way we’ve always known but not really believing we can make a change is familiar to me. It’s this internal tug-of-war I’ve given the term “imperfectly ready.”

And if you’ve felt the tension of being imperfectly ready to live on mission in your neighborhood, you are in the right place.

Direction over pace

I’ve found tremendous reassurance in the mantra I’ve adopted: the direction is more important than the pace. It’s a relief for slow-processers, slow decision-makers, and those, like me, hesitant to take the first step towards a change that feels overwhelming.

The classic Aesop fable of the tortoise and the hare comes to mind. The slow, unswerving steps of the tortoise effectively moved him towards his end goal. And so too can our small, baby steps into missional living begin to transform us from the inside out.

The appeal of a baby step is that it feels doable.

If something doesn’t feel doable, I am just not as likely to commit. The first step for me is a bigger hurdle than the subsequent steps because once I gain momentum, I overthink less and trust God more. Inertia fuels my pressing into the heart of God and the action steps I take in response.

Keeping in mind that the direction is less consequential than the pace frees me to trust the pace that God sets for me, and not compare my pace to someone else’s. It also fills me with vision because I am looking ahead, allowing big dreams to land.

The vision

Perhaps it’s been a while since you dared to let yourself dream. Perhaps you’ve accepted that your life is not exactly all you want it to be. If that is you today, I pray that hope will land where you feel dry and defeated. I pray that you and God can spend some time dreaming together.

The vision I’ve held up before me is one where I am deeply rooted in community within my neighborhood. I have soul-deep friends who are also neighbors. I am genuine and feel truly alive. I stay close to God and also welcome others in close—close enough to really know me, close enough to see the imperfections God is still working on inside me, close enough to be privy to the conversations with God that are shaping me on the inside.

I dream of everyday moments that have eternal significance. I envision living with intention, and posturing my heart like an open door, welcoming my neighbors into my heart, my home, and my life so that the things God is doing in my life can ripple out beyond me in organic ways.

I dream of living on mission in my neighborhood.

I’m living this dream but I’m also still learning, oh, ever learning how to more fully embrace it—how to better get out of the way so God can truly have his way. I still feel the tension of being imperfectly ready.

Momentum

What I’m discovering is that the readiness rarely comes before we begin. The equipping happens en route, in our most vulnerable moments, when we trust God with our fears and our questions and our lack of knowledge and experience.

Today if you’ve been lingering at the edge, unsure whether this is for you yet unable to dismiss the way a missional life pulls at your heart, these next words are for you: No baby step is too small to take. The small choices to show through a sincere smile, a gesture of kindness, or a moment of being interruptible that those around us are valuable to both God and us matter. And the things that matter, when we pursue them, keep changing us on the inside. And then the outwards signs of change become more evident. What is happening is momentum.

We start small, offering our imperfect readiness, and place our willingness in the hands of the one who makes small things grow.

We learn to be faithful in each small step he leads us too, trusting that he can work through it all.

We give thanks for the small ways we can say yes to God as we recognize the way they rewire our thinking—how a habit of saying yes to small things means we are better equipped to follow him still to the things that require a little more brave than we think we have inside us.

Most habits begin with a small change. This small choice, repeated over time, leads to transformative change. Committing long-term to change often sounds nice but ends there. New-year’s resolutions reside on paper, often not breaking free into a habit. They are good and wise things—like eating better and exercising daily and reading more books and being a better friend—but intention alone doesn’t have the power to move us towards change.

Missional living doesn’t have to sit on a dusty list along with all your other best intentions. But you may have to be willing to give the small baby steps a try to see how large of a life change they will eventually make.

A resource to guide your baby steps

Beginning with baby steps has been so helpful for me that I wanted a way to help you get unstuck if you want to live on mission in your neighborhood but still feel intimidated by it. Next Friday, September 18, I’m releasing a 30-day devotional to make missional living more doable than ever before. Each devotion is bite-size and will gently guide you through baby steps that will expand your heart and your vision. You can read more about Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors here on the blog.

And finally, I wanted to share some encouragement from Psalms I recently read during my morning routine. It’s a reminder that it is God himself who guides our journey into neighborhood missional living. He leads us with wisdom, showing us what baby step to take next. I pray it encourages you as it did me.

Lord, I have chosen you alone as my inheritance.
You are my prize, my pleasure, and my portion.
I leave my destiny and its timing in your hands.^[e]
Your pleasant path leads me to pleasant places.
I’m overwhelmed by the privileges
that come with following you,
for you have given me the best!
The way you counsel and correct me makes me praise you more,
for your whispers in the night give me wisdom,
showing me what to do next.

Psalm 16:5-7 TPT

Jesus, you are worthy of our adoration. You are deserving of all of our trust. You are good. Thank you for your whispered guidance. Thank you for walking with me as I step forward into each #nextrightthing. In your holy and precious name, Jesus, I pray. Amen.

P.S. Did you know that The Uncommon Normal is also available as a podcast? Tune in to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to listen!