Worth the Risk

Stepping out in faith is a scary, scary move to make.

A lot of us aren't built for uncertainty, and we're easily shaken when times turn rocky.

So we like to hide in the downy folds of our comfort, our familiarity.

We like to keep our hands from getting messy, our hearts from being bitterly scratched.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements." -- C. S. Lewis

Vulnerability is like nausea; anxiety is like a persistent ache. Fear is a crippling wound, worry a stifling noose.

But we were not made to live in such boxes.

Stepping out in faith is carefully cutting away the tissue and muscle covering your heart to expose it, pulse and all. You may encounter a situation so agonizing that you feel it bone-deep. You may expose your heart to someone who takes it in one hand only to stab it with the other. You may move forward toward a goal only to have the grounds of your ambition upturned beneath your feet.

But to move forward at all is to risk.

We were not made for shells, for boxes, for zones or fences.

We were made to scale mountains up to heights that make us dizzy, to run headlong through fields laughing the air out of our lungs. We were made to plunge into the depths of faith and trust and submit to the cold shock, to the prospect of what might lie below.

We were made for stepping forward one day at a time, praying and praying and praying, seeking grace upon grace upon grace, and loving fiercely.

Ambitions, relationships, adventures, they're worth the risk; even if it fails, even if you bend under the weight, even if you feel like you're walking through flames -- God wastes nothing, and He uses every situation for our good.

He uses risk to grow us.

To teach us.

To mold us as clay.

To remind us we are His, and He holds us firmly by our right hand, and we have no reason to distrust Him - not one.

God is good all the time, and by anchoring our heart in Him, we are freed to take steps of faith with His plan and goodness in mind. Not every step may end in success, but all are used to shape us.

God wastes nothing, and we would do well to take every step remembering that we walk hand-in-hand with Him. We may be shaken for a moment, but He will lift us up, dust us off, and remind us to breathe and keep moving.

To live is worth the risk.

Lord, remind us to live.

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In what ways have you stepped out in faith? 

Cheers, 

Alicyn 

P.S. Sorry for being virtually nonexistent on the blog the last couple of months. It's been a busy semester, you guys.