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| A new beginning |
A New Year begins, and for each one of us, a new challenge. Or not.
I repeat. For each one of us, a new challenge. Or not.
Remember when the gospel story of the disciples out on the sea of Galilee during a raging storm, and suddenly they see Jesus coming to them walking across the water? We tend to think of that as a nice little miracle, Jesus walking on water.
But in reality, it is not Jesus performing a miracle. It is Jesus showing us not to avoid the storm. If there was anywhere Jesus probably did NOT want to be, it was walking across the sea of Galilee during a raging storm, only to find that the disciples thought he was a ghost, and were more terrified of him then of the storm. But he went on.
That is the question I ask myself this 2012. What risks am I willing to take to reach my dream, to reach out to someone in need, to challenge my own self? Or do I stand back on shore, wanting safety?
How many wonderful things await us, but for fear of struggle, we stay back. We judge by what we think makes us happy instead of discerning the call that beckons us forth.
I am put in mind of something I read recently by Sy Safransky. He writes: Years ago, I was trapped in a newspaper job I couldn't stand. Then I heard Graham Nash sing, "Make sure that the things you do keep us alive." The next day I walked to work, quit my job, and kept walking. Better to be a pilgrim without a destination, I figured, than to cross the wrong threshold every day.
Jesus walked on water into the storm. What am I willing to do? What am I willing to risk this New Year 2012? It may well tell the story of my true dreams.
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