Robin Lawrimore – Robin Lewis

Suddenly, they were there. Five large white-tailed deer. I had the camera. But something was in the way. I learned something valuable on that dirt road.

God is actively moving His children forward. You may be one of those who are eager, have a dream or longing in your heart, but not be sure what to do next. Fear and uncertainty may be holding you back. {How do we know the next step? How do we get our feet out of cement to take it?}

We first need to know where we are now. If life is a treasure map and “X marks the spot” where treasure is buried, then we have to know where we are to follow the map. So taking an honest assessment of our current position and condition is needed.

Our past negative life events can become a filter for our decisions and an excuse for things like self-protection, fear, procrastination, or doubt. As this type of filter is mentally reinforced, it becomes like a screened porch. You can’t see outside without first seeing the screen.

I recently tried to photograph five white-tailed deer who were on the other side of a chain-linked fence. I couldn’t get my camera to focus on anything beyond the fence and missed a beautiful photo of the deer on a country afternoon before they scampered off. (Click on image to see them running away!) We do this – focusing on the fence in our lives and unable to focus on the beauty and possibility that lies beyond it. Sometimes because we are unable to see, we miss what was waiting for us. To see further requires new vision which springs from a willingness to change, which then leads to growth. {So what is your fence?}

Without change we do not grow and without growth we cannot mature. Look around you. If there are points of weakness, lack, or negative influence, then an element of truth is missing. ~Shirley Weaver

Take an honest look and discover where you are – current attitude, recurring problems, disappointments, etc. Ask God to show to you the missing truth that can lead to an honest assessment of where you are. Then…look for the next step towards your goal. If you don’t know what it is, pray, seek wise counsel and get valuable advice from those who are ahead of you.

Taking one step at a time is progress. You don’t have to take 10 giant steps. Just the next step, even if it’s small. Taking action gives the motivation and confirms direction.

When God told the Children of Israel to cross the Jordan River, which was at flood stage, He promised to stop the waters and make a way through, but only after the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant had stepped into the water. We take the steps and He teaches as we go. He will be faithful to get us to our destination. {What’s your next step? It might be speaking honestly about concerns.}

Easy? Nope. But do we really want easy, safe, and boring? If you do, you’ll stay where you are and always wonder what is under the X on the map. But if you’re willing, if you have a dream and desire in your heart to move forward, then pray and step. And yes, you will feel a degree of fear, but like someone once said to me, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” With every choice we make, we learn and find the better way.

Books are written line by line. Lives are lived out step by step.

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We walked on sand next to water – along the edge. With sun beating down, with rain sometimes falling, we talked and sat and waited. We shared hearts and enjoyed. There are a thousand stories the ocean tells and we were there to listen.

I love life next to the edge of the sea and this is what I saw…. starfish broken but healing, each oyster shell a unique and bumpy design, a man of peace baiting hooks hoping for a catch, children running with buckets of water, surfers and a captain of catamarans. Women in hats, a wedding party, a toad fish rescued from a hook searching for the safety of the waves, rain drops that cool skin. The sound of the ocean, the heavy saltiness of the air…it all comes together in a sea of experience.

But there was more… peace was there at the edge and I was out to live under a very big sky that always reminds me my Father can handle anything that concerns me. We were the audience for the waves that sing of His faithfulness, that fall over with the lace of petticoats and run towards us on the shore like they want to kiss our feet.

I walked to the point where the water comes into the creek and watched the tide return.

Are we not all like the healing starfish, the bumpy oyster, the fisherman hoping?

God is always seeking you. Every sunset. Every clear blue sky. Every ocean wave. The starry hosts of night. He blankets each new day with the invitation…”I am here.” ~Lou Giglio

I am a traveler, a sojourner, not a tourist. I am not what I once was, but am always becoming more as I engage with the earth and people around me, as I stop to see what is there. And Jesus did this incredible work of creating all we see and I don’t want to miss any of it. I want to live life on the edge so as to accept His invitation and grasp all the senses can contain as a gift, thankful in the moments, a noticer of the God-deposits in a day. In that way, I look God in the eye and see Him in all that surrounds me.

Life on the edge is intentional, searching for the significant, face to face. More than an observer – a participant. Our lives here are brief and I want to take hold of Him and take hold of all He has placed in my path as I live more fully…expecting Him to dazzle me in a way that makes me want to shout and dance with joy as He reveals always more. It is the knowing the Father more fully that makes fear shrink away.

It is God’s kindness that displays itself before me, that changes me, that draws me to repentance, that loves me through the earth-gifts, the people-gifts, for nothing and no one is ordinary. He helps me when days are beauty and when days are ugly. And He helps me love, and the smaller I feel at this life on the edge, the more I realize my true significance.

And I am blessed.