A New Year Beckons Us To Leave The Shore
There is something exciting about a New Year!
The idea of a new beginning...a fresh start...and new possibilities excites us.
What does the New Year hold for me, you ask?
When ideas become dreams and dreams become goals.
The New Year births new meaning to a new season of our life.
It invites us to take risks we've never taken before. To climb a new mountain, to start a new job or career path, to go back to school and become a nurse, a counselor, or ministry leader. To become our own boss; to be an entrepreneur. To write that book we always wanted to. The possibilities...endless.
And so we take a risk. Risk empowers us to get out of our comfort zone, to take a chance on ourselves, to believe "I can and I will."
It's a challenge to be a little crazy and dream the impossible, like being the first to go to college in your family, to go back to school, quit a dead end job for one with benefits and opportunities for career advancement, and to believe that you are worth it, and that the journey you are embarking on will change the trajectory of the path you're on to one that is more fulfilling and meaningful, filled with purpose and possibilities.
It's also an invitation to think wild, good, brilliant ideas like:
the Wright brothers who build the first airplane
Amelia Earhart who was the first woman ever to fly a plane solo across the Atlantic
Inventors Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, or Alexander Graham Bell or
Noah, who built the ark when the odds were against them
Uncertainty can either push us forward to take a risk or it can keep us paralyzed with fear of failure. Getting outside our comfort zone is a necessary risk if we are to learn, to grow, and thrive in life. The grass may be greener on the other side, but you will never know if you aren't brave enough to step onto the other side. Without action, the dream fades.
What will it take for you to let go of your comfort? To take the path less traveled? To be courageous enough to lose sight of the shore? Or to take just one step forward toward your dreams, your goals, your aspirations? One that beckons you to begin a new path and a new adventure filled with endless possibilities - today!
In order to begin, you'll need to cast your vision of something different than what is. To image the best you and lean into that picture of what can be. What would happen if you just take one step in the direction of your dreams today? How will a new path make you different a week from now, a month from now, a year and five years into the future? How will that make you feel? How will you have grown? How will it make you a better person?
So, expect to succeed in the course you set. Go to college, fly a plane, invent, be curious, be a little crazy, be brilliant.
Whatever you do, don't let fear stop you. Fear is just an obstacle to be crushed, but you were created to soar. So, when no one else says it can be done, build the boat anyway, and get ready to leave the shore. Today is your day!
How will you soar?
"Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.." Isaiah 40:31
"You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore." William Faulkner
