So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”
Romans 8:12–5, The Message
As I’ve been meeting with people to find partners for my residency, I say, time and time again, “I never thought I’d do something like this. I’ve been set on an adventure, a quest.”
Namely, I never thought I’d:
- Raise support for a salary.
- Shift direction the way I have.
- Be okay with not knowing where I go two years from now.
I suppose I thought I’d risked enough. Starting to freelance full-time in 2016 was a scary act of faith. I took it, though, and accepted the reality of not always knowing from where my next paycheck would come. What more could be required of me?
A foolish question, I know. God requires everything. This isn’t something to be dreaded; rather, in giving God everything, life becomes sweeter, fuller. It becomes an adventure. I wake up each day anticipating what God will do next and how he might use me in his story.
Even though those are true statements, moving forward with the residency remains daunting. There’s no safety net here or an assurance of how things will turn out. All I have is a bit of faith that helps me take one step after another.
Perhaps that is enough. Perhaps, too, I can remember something I said in passing a few weeks ago: “Quests are good, although they can be perilous. But all good quests are, right?”
Image: Ryan Adams (Creative Commons)