Diane bought me a new weedeater this week. It boasts of being “easy start,” but that proved to be more of a marketing ploy rather than actual fact. The instructions stated explicitly: press primer button 6 times, while holding throttle down, pull starter rope 6 times on full choke, then pull starter rope 6 times on half choke. 666 — how fitting.

After countless pulls on the starter rope on full choke, half choke, and no choke, I really felt like choking the guy who asserted this was an easy start weedeater. I looked, but wrap weedeater around tree wasn’t one of the instructions.

Suspecting that the gasoline mix may have been old, I got some new gasoline and mixed a fresh gallon and started over. After repeating the 666 cycle a few more times, the weedeater finally sputtered to life. But something still wasn’t right. Pressing the throttle trigger made no difference. The weedeater was barely running and barely cutting. It was slow going as I tried to trim around the driveway and the sidewalk.

I realized at this pace, I would be better off getting a goat and walking it around the yard. So, I determined to find out what was wrong before I started considering the tree option again. After tinkering a few minutes I discovered the problem–the throttle cable was not connected to the throttle trigger. It had slipped out of the little plastic lever that allowed it to open the throttle. It was only able to idle. Pressing the trigger was a useless exercise because nothing was attached.

A little later, after everything was reassembled and the weedeater was running properly the thought came to mind–how many people are just idling through life? They have read the instructions and are doing everything by the book, but it just doesn’t seem to be effective. Life may work, to a degree, but it just seems like there should be more progress or better results.

Why do some people just seem to be going though life on idle? It is not that they are lazy, just ineffective. A lazy person does not keep pulling on the rope. These people are out there giving their best effort, but just seem to be running on idle.

Over the next few days, let’s consider some of the possible explanations.