Too Close to Home

It's strange when it happens on your block, or at an intersection you cross daily, or on your bike trail, or on the airline you fly frequently. It scares you when it happens too close to home!

A man was shot on our block. A man my age was killed crossing the street at a crosswalk I use frequently.  A young father of two had a fatal bike crash on our bike trail. An Ethiopian airplane, my African airline, crashed into the sea killing 90. Too close to where I live.

Events like these move from the newspaper into your bedroom and haunt you at night. Could have been me. I was there an hour before. I was on that flight path in the same jet. I have crossed there without looking twice before. That's my turf...too close to home.

The fears can stalk you in the night...tracking you into your plans for the future...strangling the courage out of your dreams.

I can acquiesce to the lure of supposed safety and stay close to home...or I can press forward with the bravado that flows not from the stupidity of pride but from the inspiration of faith. He shall assign his angels to supervise my adventures (Psalm 91). They will not always keep me from my own foolishness but they are more than able to deliver from the lurking evil or the perpetrated accidents that could befall me.

The safest place is the center of God's will...it is the most dangerous place as well. For Holy Spirit empowered and emboldened followers of Jesus, then RISK, DANGER, HEARTBREAK lie ahead. But He who watches us will never fall asleep at His guard post (Psalm 121:3). He's got my back!

So forward into the future, into adventure, into the land of insecurity for God is my shield.
No small mindedness...no retreat to the comfort zone of complacency...instead...forward into the world, into the mission, into the epic adventure of being a "go for it" disciple of Jesus!

I refuse to be confined or relegated to the small piece of real estate where I feel most in control! No...a thousand times no....take me to the places where God must be in control because I have such little control. I refuse to live too close to home!