Have you been there? I mean really been there?
She wonders if she’s alone in this struggle, this significant decision. Not the “Bacon burger vs. the Vegan bean burger” decision. Rather the monumental choice to make the leap. The scary choice with the uncertain outcome.
She sits in the airport after another day of fulfilling her corporate duty. The one she’d been groomed to do for decades. The path that promised security and safety. Or did it? I mean deep down she knew that she was no more secure than the last 20 poor schmucks that were escorted into an early retirement. But she’s there…because it’s it feels 100O X safer than anything “out there”. Another girl sits next to her. She’s in an abusive relationship, hiding her scars and her reality from the world. Deep down she knows she’s no less at risk than the last 20 poor women who lost their very lives to fury and rage at the hand of their betrothed. But she’s there….because it feels 1000 X more familiar than anything “out there”. Beside her sits yet a girl waiting to fly back to her dorm room. She’s paralyzed by her anxiety, hiding from her family and her world around her, the one nobody understands. Deep down she knows she’s no less safe from losing her battle to the bottle of pills that dull her pain. But she stays there with them because she feels 1000 X more a sense of belonging than anything or anyone “out there”.
But…her heart. She yearns for something wilder, something free. An unpaved path, untouched wilderness. Where anything she creates is her-her gift, her mark. Her legacy. Her. She’s defined herself as the opposite for so long: Someone confined by rule following and people pleasing. The one who tows the expected line, even when she knows there is a better way. Someone who doesn’t ruffle feathers. Someone who everyone can depend on, who carries the weight and smiles through her tears. Trapped in a functional body while her sanguine creativity, the beauty of her very essence, withers.
She sits, in another airport, looking for ways to pass another hour. Then it came-that unexpected and poignant message from God through one of His messengers who has no idea she is even being used by “Him”. That girl, the messenger, probably just thinks it’s just a random circumstance that placed her in front of this long lost friend, so she’s says the first thing that’s on her mind. Little does she know that she’s actually one of many that God has used to nurture His leading in this girl’s life….the leading to a new place, a different place, a place that makes no material promise, but rather a promise of adventure and provisional security in the unseen and unknown. In Him. The message-it was just so…on point. Standing there in the airport, she recognized instantly it was in fact part of “the call”…not from her friend, but from “Him”. She loves the feeling His call produces. It’s better than every call of every lover she’s ever had combined. HIS call, is the most attractive, the most exciting yet the most mysterious and the most alluring.
She’s heard His call before. Sometimes loud-sometimes not. She hears it most notably when she allows herself time and space to hear anything other than the distracting sounds of the world spinning around her. To hear His soft, peaceful, beautiful voice requires her to slow down. Turn off the TV. Stop finding “things to do” or even just “things to obsess about”. Stop stalking friends and foes on facebook. Just stop, and hear His still small voice.
Today, she realizes that the God she serves is big enough to shout through her distractions. Today, He did that in the form of yet another lovely lady that He had strategically placed in her life so long ago. She read her message, like so many others….out of the blue encouragement and praise for this simple thing He’s been leading her to do….and that one liner that always gets her “Girl, you were made for this”.
Have you been this girl? Are you this girl right now? Are you afraid to take terrifying steps before you that carry absolutely no promise of any specific outcome? What is on the other side of the tightrope you are on?
I pray today for courage for myself and for YOU to continue taking scary steps. I don’t know about you, but I spend way too much time being fearful and anxious. I fear loss and failure-and for good reason! But to all our fears of loss, God says-what about the gain? What about trusting in Him? What about realizing that all of this is passing by anyway…the only things of “forever” are that which is rooted in His promises.
So what about following His leading no matter how crazy it feels, no matter how scary it seems. What about taking that step on that tight rope and feeling the exhilaration of trusting in nothing more than the invisible force in front of you? What if you took that step, and then took one more. What if you stood in the middle of the tight rope, 20 stories up, even in an earthquake, yet didn’t fall? What if?
For those of you that follow Jesus, you’ll know what I mean by the following: You know how out of ALL the promises and prophecies of Scripture, that they’ll be that one, or two, or a few that out of all of the, seem to be the constant in our walks? What if there is intention behind those promises that is directed at each of us as individuals because that is the very promise that God knows WE need to learn and apply more than any of his other magnificent promises. What if those specific promises are rooted in our promised inheritance in Him.
What are God’s promises to you? What is the inheritance He desires for you to believe and accept here on Earth as we await for what is yet to come?
Here is mine: He brings it to me from Phillipians 4:6 “Darcy, rejoice in Me, always, REJOICE! Let your gentle spirit be known to all for I am near. Be anxious for NOTHING but in everything in prayer and thanksgiving let your request be made known to Me, and My peace that transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind.”
I encourage you dear sisters, dear friends to listen to what YOUR call is. Wherever you are on your journey, wherever you are at in this life: Early stage, mid stage, late stage…hell who among us even knows “what” our stage is…tomorrow could be our finale. Take your step, make your leap. You’re not alone. #onEarthasitisinHeaven #Godprovides #youarea....
Xoxo,
Darcy
