Brave

 

There is something deep within us that wants to be brave.

It was bravery, mixed with a lot of faith and a little naivete that brought us to rural Alaska 11 years ago, wide-eyed as we pulled up with our two very young children in front of our new home: a 1970’s trailer in our new rural one-moose hometown; bravery when I watched our couch being passed through a window because that trailer’s door was not quite wide enough; bravery that made us stay when told that this jacked-up trailer might just roll off its concrete blocks if we had a good shake from a new-to-us typical earthquake. Something deep within us was brave.

What is it that seems to die in us little by little as we age, making us retreat into our comfortable, controlled existence, dipping only the tips of our toes in the waters of trust instead of jumping full into the deep pools of faith: faith that God is big enough, trustworthy enough, and has enough resources to carry us on the journey He’s planned from our comfortable existence to audacious vitality?

Christ calls us to be brave in following Him into the unknown, to follow without looking back and often without seeing forward; to step in a toe, then a foot, and then to dive, all in without hesitation. He calls us to be brave as He was, to do hard things as He did, and in doing so to grow closer to Him in genuine trust and worship.

Following without question, keeping our eyes fixed on Him, taking each step on this journey of faith . . .

Being brave.

~Natalie