Choose Life

I’m thinking that right about now, my life looks very similar to a high ropes course. The first time I mustered enough courage to do “Tree Tops” was at Kids Across America (KAA - U KNOW!). I vividly remember the experience. Fear. Excitement. Anxiety. Anticipation. There was this sense of impending accomplishment intertwined with this other nagging sense of impending doom. But, tackle it I did - though not alone. The key for this particular course is that you go tandem. There were parts of the course that you simply could not make it through without the aid of another person. However, this isn’t the part that is like my life. Maybe that’s next week’s lesson.

This week’s lesson is tied into the admission that I was majorly afraid to take the first step. The conversations were similar to this:

“But you’re strapped in.

“I hear you” (with much sarcasm)

“Look the carabiner is firmly secured, you’re bolted in”

“Yep, it sure is…” (and more sarcasm)

“But you’re not alone, you won’t fall, trust me”

“Uh huh, that’s what you say now.”

And, there is this week’s lesson. I approach trusting the Lord in the same manner.

“Kim, I hedge you in behind and before”

“Yep, Lord, I hear You.”

“I’m the creator of the universe, I create all life and sustain all life, all the days ordained for you were written in my book long before any of them came to be.”

“I know.”

And so it goes…

I know the truth. I fully recognize that God knows the number of hairs I have on my head. I know that not a sparrow drops from the sky without His knowledge. I know that He has ordained a plan and purpose for my life and that I am His workmanship created to do good works and that He who began a good work in me will complete it. Knowledge is not the problem. Faith is. The decision to act in accordance with what I know and say I believe.

I learned a very valuable lesson on that course - I lived. I lived to tell the story. I lived to encourage others who would do the course after me. I lived to be a witness to others that the carabiners do work and the bolts are secure. And, I lived – I experienced something that I never would have experienced had I chosen to reside in bondage to fear (which strangely enough often promotes itself under the guise of safety and security). I made the decision to act in accordance with what I knew and what I said I believed. And, I lived.

The question is, “Today, will l I live my life in a way that reflects what know about who God is and what I say I believe about Him?” Will I trust that regardless of how things may look, or how challenging the course ahead may seem, God really is in control? Will I choose to move beyond the fear, and stop trying to convince myself that I’m just being safe?

Will I choose to live?

-Still learning to rest,

Kim