I read a friend’s SM post tonight, and it was a beautiful, beautiful post. She went into intricate detail about comparison with highlight reels, fears and anxieties, real life experiences, and a somewhat familiar experience she had with the freezing capacity of fear. (if this is something you need to hear, message me and I can share more – with her permission 🙂 )But the powerful statement that pushed her on – the one that inspired this post for me – was one made by a worker as she encouraged my friend to keep going: “look straight ahead…and step off”.
The first thing I felt was a punch in my gut, which, by sheer default of the quick rush of emotion/energy, often causes me to inflect (internally reflect – like what I did there??). How often do we miss our chance without even knowing? How often does fear hold us back when God is whispering, “trust Me”. We believe we are called to something – a mission, a place, a job, a relationship, a community organization, a cause – but instead of looking straight, we look down. We hear His voice. We get confirmation. We believe with full force that we are on the right path. We look down. And we freeze.
Because when we look down? We swirl. Our minds race, our heads spin, our heart rates jump and our breaths catch. We jump into one of the many responses to stress, but for most of us, we freeze. Frozen, we start to question. We inflect – but guess who’s there, ready to answer loudly and to compound your doubts? We question the risk, the reality, the purpose, the passion, even God’s voice. We wonder if we were crazy to think that God was what – WHO’s – voice we were hearing. We wonder if it was all driven by emotion and not reality. We rationalize and look at logic, justifying turning back – or staying complacent – with our “when I get my ducks in a row” mentality…and we miss out. Oh, dear readers, we miss out on SO MUCH.
Y’all, this post is short and sweet. When God calls you, He calls you. He doesn’t ask you to figure out all of the details. He doesn’t request you have all the skills or knowledge or tools or understanding or know-how. Over and over again, the bible shows us examples of God calling the UN-qualified (I mean, how many sermons have been preached on that?!?). But He does require trust in Him. A child-like trust that believes He knows the bigger picture, believes He is who He says He is, believes He will walk you through the next step.
All we need to do is look straight ahead – and step off.
