Heard an interesting perspective a few weeks ago about sitting on the beach and it really created a clear picture of faith, commitment, risk and opportunity.
I don’t know about you but one of the things I love when I go to the beach is to sit in my chair with my feet in the cool ocean water. For one, that relentless crash of waves and looking out over the vast expanse of water seems to have a calming affect on me. Issues, problems and challenges seem to slowly fade away and a calm comes over me. Secondly I seem to be able to think and reflect on my life and my journey better in this peaceful setting. But, as we know, the tide starts to come in and we find ourselves moving our chair back away from the cool and soothing water. Tide comes in, we move our chair back. Tide keeps coming in and we keep moving our chair back until the ocean stops pursing us and it slowly starts to move away from us as the tide recedes.
I realized that this process of having our chair near the water and continuing to move our chair back is a lot like our life journey. Often times the water of life pushes toward us. Challenges, difficulties, fear and uncertainty take over and instead of facing things head on and standing firm we move away from the challenge or uncertainty. Instead of staying the course of what we feel we are called to or what we have been hoping for, praying for, planning for and working on, we move our chair. We step back. We step away. Instead of letting that cool water of learning, growing and pushing through rush over us we move to a more comfortable and certain environment. My hope would be that going forward we make the decision to stay and push through. To fight for what we want. To make the difference in the world we feel called to. To have a little faith.
By the way, the tide subsides, the water moves away and the situation changes and if we stay, our chair is even more grounded in the sand of success as we settle in for the journey. So, let’s not move our chair to an easier and safer location but stand firm in our calling and conviction.
You got this!! If you need help to unpack and process the journey let me know.
bmink@choiceconsultingman.com