My entire conversion was less of a journey to a foreign place,
and more of a discovery of my long-lost home.
Jennifer Fulwiler
from her book Something other than God
Change is uncomfortable.
Kirby Smart
(unseasonably warm weather has the gardenias in bloom / Julie Cook / 2022)
Perhaps it’s because it’s the start of another new year.
Perhaps it’s because so much of this said new year remains unknown.
Perhaps it’s because we long to forget the year that was..along
with the year before that…
Perhaps it’s because we are actually standing on the periphery of that
which is simply spilling out before us…
Spilling and spreading outward both far and wide…
much like a randomly tossed gallon of paint working
itself outward…spreading and covering everything in its path.
And yet frustratingly, we cannot see what that spilling and
spreading-out entails.
Nothing seems to be in focus…
All we can clearly see is that we are standing at the edge something
that reaches outward from where we currently stand…
beckoning us to follow suit.
It’s similar to standing on the edge of the sea.
We stand at the surf’s edge peering outward to a distant horizon line…
a horizon that seems to be endlessly far away yet calls us to come.
And thus we are reminded that have we have a choice.
We can either remain standing at the edge of all that is…
or…
we can set out on a journey that is calling us, nay beckoning
that we come.
Merriam Webster tells us that a journey is:
something suggesting travel or passage from one place to another
Meaning…that if we choose to move, hopefully forward
versus God forbid backward or irritatingly merely remaining in place—
we are obviously to be moving from one place to another.
As in…forward motion…with blessed great momentum.
The notion of such is not always comforting to we the creatures of habit.
We don’t like the unknown.
We don’t like the uncomfortable.
We don’t trust the unfamiliar.
Yet if there is to be growth, there must come the uncomfortable
of the unfamiliar.
And so the journey begins.
For better or worse.
For either good or bad.
The journey beckons.
The question we must ask ourselves, on the forefront of this new year..
are we ready to trust?
Are we ready to put one foot in front of the other?
The year is calling…
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the
calling you have received.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1-3
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