Jumping off the Cliff

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding, acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path. Proverbs 3:5-6

Have you ever started down a path that you felt you should go and when you are heading down the path, the thought occurs to you, what have we done? Maybe it is a career change, or having a child, or moving to a new place, or moving to a new community. You have the small quiet voice urging you to leave behind all the comfort that you've known to go into the unknown. I'm sure that Abraham and Sarah must have felt that hundreds of years ago. God told them to leave their family, community to a place of unknowns. It is like jumping off a cliff into deep waters. I've never done that but I've watched both my kids do that a couple of summers ago. It was very frightening to me, watching them stand on the edge.

What about us, standing on the edge? Sometimes you almost have a panic attack, waiting and wondering what is going to happen next. Sometimes we have a hard time sleeping at night and others, things don't work out exactly as we've planned. In the midst of the unknown, I take the quiet moments to ponder that trust is not trust in the known.

While we live in the known, we control our own destiny.  It is so much easier to live in the comfort of what I know and is familiar to me. We work hard to create a life of comfort for ourselves. None of us likes to create extra work that learning a new job, making new friends or redecorating a house has in store. The moment you step off the cliff, while you are in mid air God is in charge when we are not. It is so hard to give up our own control. We like to prepare and predict what our outcome is going to be. I think though that there is little opportunity for growth in that kind of life.

There is a confident assurance that God sees the bigger picture and sometimes He can see parts of the future that we can't predict. Living in limbo is never easy and having to wait for answers is little to be desired. There are also times in life where many changes come at once creating a perfect storm scenario, like the dam is going to break. I've heard so many people say, I don't konw how much more God thinks I can take.

What if in the midst of the storm, we say, "God you know we are in the eye of the storm. You see the now of our life and you see the future. I give all of my emotions of worry, anxiety, fear, doubt, and for many the list goes on and on. Today I will praise you for allowing us to be in the center of this whirlwind, for it is here that we are forced to rely on you. We will walk through the doors that you open. Please close all the doors where you don't want us to go. We give all of our needs and desires to you. We are confident that you have our best interest in mind and that you know what is best for us. We desire to do your will and are trusting that you will guide us where you want us to go. We give up our own control to do as you lead. And in return, we will be exactly where you want us to be to fulfill the purpose that You want us to fulfill; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven!"