Daring to dream in a world that will crush us is one of the most bold, brave and courageous things we can do. It speaks to our faith in God to meet us where our feet haven’t walked yet, but a part of our heart already has. To follow the knowing, the calling in our hearts to move towards a life of truth is one that we cannot explain or understanding, rather we follow. And blindly so. It’s a life that pulls at a deeper thread within us, walks us into the places of uncertainty, the shadows and gives us a whole new interpretation to see the world through. If we never answer the call that comes from our heart, my question is, how do we come to know God, more? Without experience, our relationship stays limited. This is why we must dare to dream. Why we must say yes to the adventure and become life long learners.
The Places We Hide from Our Calling (And the Caller)
Living life simply is enough — and often the sign of either a wise or an afraid person. When we are younger, it’s almost like we need a lot of physical adversity to understand things — very tactile lessons that play out in the macro so we can learn. But as we grow wise, we fine tune and refine our learning. We begin to take risks in other pockets of life; or at least I hope we do. When we no longer need the big and extravagant adventures, the call of action is then: how do we still see our life as an adventure? What type of adventure will we go on? A mental one? Emotional one? Spiritual one? You see, our sense of adventure and dreaming goes beyond a physical location. It can happen within the very walls of our home. If only we dare to dream, and we listen to the soft whisper inside our chest, that speaks in our prayers of the life it is pulling us towards.
The truth is we can use any part of life to hide in. We can hide in our church. We can hide in our home, relationships, and routine. We can hide in maximal adventures that on the outside look thrilling and exciting and a never ending meeting of our edges but the flightiness has become a way to avoid the true adventure that calls from within. The places we choose to hide in the most, are the places beckoning our biggest transformation.
If we aren’t truly following the adventure that’s placed in our heart, and we aren’t answering the call of God and the knock of the Holy Spirit, are we truly on an adventure? Are we truly becoming the person Christ calls us upwards to be? Or are we just living within the kingdom of our “Self” and calling it Heaven? Safety is such a sweet drug, but we are called into a life of emptying, of becoming our true selves through what is sacrificial.
Sacrificing is not just a “giving up” — it’s an allowing in. It’s an ingestion of new material that transforms us. It’s getting beyond ourselves, our comforts, our nature to settle in things that give us places to hide instead of exposing ourselves and being in service to the world. And, this doesn’t have to be some grand thing. The biggest thing we can do on the daily for our spiritual practices is simply asking:
What is the one thing that I am avoiding doing?
Maybe it’s a hard conversation.
Maybe it’s taking a risk.
Maybe it’s that thing you keep moving down on your to do list.
Maybe it’s accepting something so you can truly move on.
Maybe it’s stretching your capacity by saying yes where you’ve been routinely saying no, or the opposite — you start saying no where you always give a bitter and resentful yes.
Maybe it’s taking time to rest.
Maybe it’s setting a goal and actually sticking to it.
We have the ability to choose our adventure daily. To transform through insight, then taking the journey to embodiment.
One of the biggest things I see in death is regret. All of the things that people wished they did, the relationships they wished they poured more into, the conversations they should have had, the peace and closure they could have cultivated but chose their hiding instead. When Jesus comes, He invites us into the ultimate revealer of truth: death. Death shouldn’t scare us, it should inspire us. To live bigger and bolder — from the heart of Christ.
Compassion is a cultivated experience not an ideology.
So what are you waiting for?
What places in your life are you hiding the most in? And what are you hiding from?
What I hope for you..
I hope you choose the life that you really want to live, and not the life that other people want you to live for them. I hope you have the courage to separate what is yours, and what is not; whatever is no longer yours to hold onto anymore, I pray you gracefully soften your heart and hands, and let it go.
I pray you release yourself from the coulda, woulda, shouldas binding you to your past; any of the expectations keeping you from freeing your heart and fully accepting that where you are right now is perfect.
I hope you embrace the knowing that what is truly meant to be, never missed you and by savoring this moment in gratitude and sweetness is an act of devotional prayer and trust for what is yet to come. I hope you see this moment for what it is, and what it may be, for it too shall pass and become a memory. I hope you choose to write your memories as worthy ones, for they will always live and breathe inside of you.
I hope you fall in love with life, and the people in it, a little more each day despite knowing that one day it will all go away. I pray that being both with the heartache and joy, helps you discover the beauty in the contrast while dancing in between the different experiences brought to you. I hope that you see impermanence as a gift that roots our hearts in greater connection to everything and that every season of life is necessary the moment you choose to consciously steward your story with grace as it unfolds. I pray not only for your ability to forgive others and make more room in your heart to experience life again, but truly forgive the hardest person to forgive: yourself.
I hope you fearlessly pursue your heart’s knowings, even when others attempt to project their fear and discomfort onto you. I hope that when the time comes, you don’t settle for the type of belonging that keeps you small and that you don’t let doubt deter you from your one true path. T hope you keep choosing to say yes, and walk the razor’s edge over and over again, however many times needed to continue on the journey you started. Even when you’re tired, worn down and your mind wants to lead you astray to a crossroad that is calling you to question your heart’s guidance, I hope you bravely choose your heart anyway, no matter how hard, vulnerable or inconvenient it may seem at the time. I pray you gracefully step into the unknown, and have seasons where you shake things up, no longer hiding in your familiarity for the greater gift of spiritual alignment.
I hope you one day discover and fully feel you are not only being, but doing what you are here to do in this world. That your purpose is being fulfilled from the very act of being the most truthful, beautiful and raw extension of your heart and soul. I hope you choose to follow the path of the heart, and not society’s bottomless, insatiable prescription for happiness. I hope you choose courage and comfort when needed; for sometimes they are one of the same, but know that at some point you will always have to take a deep breath and bravely begin again.
