I love my job! I know there are not many that can echo this and I know that I am blessed to be able to say this on a daily basis. I get to work with college students and talk with them about Jesus. I get to walk through life with people and share in the messiness and brokenness and work towards restoration and wholeness. It's a beautiful adventure. Thank you God :-)
I want to share with you something that I have been working on myself and seems to be what others in my life are also working through. The wall of fear. When God calls you to do something, you know it. You have a vision, a purpose, a goal, a gut feeling, somehow you know when God is asking something of you whether it is to do something or not do something, it doesn't matter. You just know. Often people talk about being obedient. That seems simple enough. God says do this so you go do that. Reality is, that it is not so simple. Most of the time when God calls us to do something, it requires us to stretch ourselves. We don't want to do that. We want to stay comfortable just where we are because we are content in our little bubbles we have created for ourselves.
As we sit in the center of our bubbles we feel safe and within the confines of our comfort zones. The moment that we start nearing the edge of the bubble we begin to sense some fear. When we can touch the outer edge of the bubble, we begin to feel petrified. That is the wall of fear I referred to earlier. That is where we often walk back to the middle of the bubble and sit in a fetal position vowing never to leave ever again. Not very often is someone brave enough to pop the bubble and venture outside of their comfort zone.
Something that is difficult for me to do is talk to complete strangers. As part of my job as a staff worker with IV, I am supposed to walk up to random college students I do not know to do contact evangelism. This means that I am going to start spiritual conversations with people I do not know. These people could be atheists or love Jesus. I have no idea but I am called to walk up to them and start a conversation. This petrifies me. It seems like such an awkward thing to do.
The reality is though that people want to have spiritual conversations but most of our world tells us that we can't. Or in the "Christian" world they just beat you over the head with a Bible. Often our culture does not just let people speak freely about what they believe or what questions they may have about spirituality.
So this week, I am going to pop my bubble and venture out of my comfort zone to talk to people I don't know about spiritual things. God will be with me. He will guide my way and He will help me get past my wall of fear. I have been past different walls of fear in my life and what ends up happening is that I get this really amazing sense of peace and I find that life outside the bubble isn't so bad, in fact, there is a new sense of freedom and a great new perspective about life that I didn't have before.
So what about you? What is your wall of fear? What is God calling you to do? Have you ventured outside the middle of your bubble? Are you ready to punch through that wall of fear and see what God has to offer you on the other side?
Isaiah 41:10 says, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
