Let go and soar!

I recently read two important rules of success! First, where God provides providence a financial leap of faith will be required. Note the key word here is "will" not may. There is a very distinct difference. May indicates a potential cost. Will indicates a certainty. Another author succinctly put it this way: there will be a price for growth. A cost. What are you willing to pay? Second, to walk on water you have to step off the boat. You cannot expect a miracle if you do not walk out in faith.

Three years ago I was blessed with the opportunity to go on my first cruise with several members of my family. On that cruise my wife, Kim, desperately wanted to go on a Scuba Scooter Excursion. On this excursion, you were taken out into the ocean and then given the blessed opportunity to submerge yourself in a one man underwater scooter. The experience was advertised as breathtaking and magnificent. Kim was so excited. I was so terrified! You see, I am not a strong swimmer and the thought of stepping off a perfectly good boat into an ocean did not seem very logical to me. I am the guy that wears a life jacket when I go canoeing in two feet of water!

What did I do? I supported my Bride and signed up for the excursion. Did I go with her that day? Yes. Terrified? Yes! When the moment came, did I go into the ocean water without a life jacket and swim out to my assigned scooter? Did I take a deep breath and force myself underwater (in the ocean) to descend down a tether and then ascend into the small confined air pocket inside the scooter bubble? Did I at the end of the adventure exit my only source of oxygen and then swim back to a boat that seemed like it was 100 miles away without a life jacket? Yes, Yes, and Yes! I did it! I stepped off the boat. I got into the water. I participated in this terrifying challenge. I overcame my fears and became a participant in the adventure. I decided not to be an observer in life. I stepped out in faith! I swam out there! I dove down like I knew what I was doing. I clearly did not! I then at the end of the adventure swam back to the boat! I conquered this challenge! I overcame my fear to support my wife in what she still recalls as the best excursion she has experienced. I still recall it as the most terrifying experience of my life save one or two that I experienced when I was in the Army.

The illustration above captures the essence of what various authors of success are saying: To be in the game, you have to leave the sidelines. To follow your dreams, you have to be willing to leave your safe harbor. Many of us, have brilliant plans and visions that God provides. Many of us have talents and gifts that God gives us and He fully expects us to utilize to His glory and His joy. He shares that Joy with us, when we fulfill ourselves. When we follow the path that God provides for us. It is the proverbial win-win! We aid in the completion of God's eternal plan and in the process we make our life's the best they can be. The hesitation we force upon ourselves based upon fear and doubt is the very thing that limits our success. We cling to it as the lifeline, not realizing it is not a life line, but an anchor.

Do you know how elephants were trained in the 19th and 20th centuries to be very passive creatures? Elephants, one of the most powerful mammals in the world were trained in circuses to stay in one place held only by a rope tied around one ankle tethered to a tree or a stake in the ground. How? When they were very young they were tied down and they fought against the pull of the rope to no avail. When they grew and gained enormous strength they stopped pulling, what was the use? They tried before and could not get away. Sometimes, the circus handlers will put the rope around the giant elephant and not even tie it down. There is no need. The elephant does not think it can go anywhere, when we all know it most certainly can.

Are you tied to an artificial anchor? Are you standing at the edge of the boat looking at out the ocean fearful you may not succeed? I know you have a vision, a desire, an idea that will both improve your life and those around you. Are you listening to your fear and your doubts instead of jumping into the water? If not you, who?

I have a vision, a dream of supporting my local government brothers and sisters in the very challenging tasks they provide. Local government service is not for the faint of heart. I have postponed this dream preferring to staying on the boat looking out at the water too afraid to let go of my lifeline. What if's and fears delayed me, but not anymore. I am willing to pay the financial price demanded as I follow God's providence. I am not just stepping off the boat to walk off water. I am leaping off the boat. Jumping out into the arms of my God with faith! I am ready for this adventure!

What is your adventure? Are you ready to jump off the boat? Are you ready to let go of the anchor and soar?

Here we grow!