Been thinking again about the edge. I have wondered if I really believe what I wrote a few months ago.
In a February 16th post I wrote:
” I began to wonder if these messages of safety, of pulling back, of not getting too close we heard as children, and this image of staying back from the edge and not taking a risk have stuck with us as adults, especially in our spiritual journeys. I wonder if pulling back from the edge keeps us from experiencing the kind of life we were meant to live. I just wonder if there is a lot more to think about here.
“What if the edge is actually the place we need to go? What if there is opportunity, adventure, risk, needed perspective, and life-giving mission and necessary vision that can only be seen from that vantage point?
“What if it is actually more risky to settle in, stay safe, stay back in the places where we are familiar and comfortable? What if the most dangerous choice is actually staying a few feet back, settling in and allowing our view to be hindered?”
I have been forced to go to the edge lately to take a different look and to get some new and needed perspective. I would view myself as a risk taker, someone who is not willing to settle and stay in the comfortable. But that perspective of myself has been challenged lately. Sometimes I think I am more likely to stay safe… stay back, and stay in a routine than I thought.
Yet I have seen time and time again that in my spiritual journey, in my key relationships, in the mission God has given me in Harbor Ministries, that minus some needed wake up calls in my life I can trend toward a safer view and stay back from the edge. Circumstances in these last few weeks have given me a push to the edge. My wife did some of the needed pushing recently in our relationship and it has caused me to re-engage her in some better ways.
I have also felt flat in my spiritual journey recently and I’m realizing I’ve been going down a path I have journeyed before…. where I am so busy doing…. that I have neglected a passionate pursuit of God myself. That pathway lead to near disaster in my past. I was beginning to forget again what that passionate pursuit needs to look like in my own life, so I am trying to take some steps to bring some needed wind back in my sails, before things get real crazy soon.
I know this. It is time to be challenged and not coast. Time to not just encourage others, but to pursue this mysterious God of ours myself with the same level of intensity that I am challanging others with. Time to get up to the edge and see what steps God wants me to take from there. For now, one of those steps I think, is to just enjoy the view…
