We live on the edge of the uncharted.
Even the quietest of us crave adventure. It's
why we fall in love with Narnia as soon as we crack open the first book.
It's why the end of The Lord of the Rings leaves us with a funny
little ache in the center of our chest. It's why pirates make us swoon.
Danger and excitement and epic music preferably
written by Hans Zimmer. Our spirit hungers for it.
But we never quite get to it, even though we live
on the edge of it.
We can't even walk into a room full of people we
don't know without trepidation. How are we supposed to take up our cross,
abandon a life we know, and follow Christ into the unknown? We crave the
uncharted and think we would seize upon the opportunity to step off the edge of
the map if it presented itself, but the truth is, the edge of the map is right
in front of us. We sail uncharted waters every day, and until we can
learn to navigate the uncharted calm with courage, how can we expect to leap at
the opportunity to sail into waters both uncharted and tumultuous?
How can we move halfway across the world if we
can't talk to a stranger? How can we be ready for that job if we can't
courageously face the one we're in? How can we presume to be missionaries
if we can't tell our next-door neighbor about Jesus?
My goal here is not to revisit the "faithful
in little" principle. My goal here is to get you to view every tiny,
unfamiliar event as an opportunity to live uncharted.
Live uncharted. It's been my
phrase this past month as I began full-blown clinical nursing classes.
Walking to a test, I remind myself that it is an opportunity to live
uncharted. Walking into clinical, I smile at the adventure of sailing
unfamiliar waters. Every new, scary, anxiety-inducing thing I face, the
Lord is turning from a chore and fear to an adventure, and somehow, that makes
all the difference. My heart can beat out of my chest and my respirations
can increase to borderline hyperventilation levels, but that's okay -- it's
only happening because I'm on an adventure.
Live uncharted. Certainly, the
waters I am sailing I may end up naming "Lily Pad Lake" and
"Sleepy River" once I've been through them and they're no longer
uncharted, but even the most experienced sailors glide through untroubled
territory before journeying onto the part of the map reading "Here There Be
Monsters."
The unknown is difficult because I can't even
identify a specific "what if" for you. There's too many.
But when that "what if" starts playing in your head, follow it
through.
What would happen if you walked into this new
situation and everybody ignored you? What would happen if you made a
complete idiot of yourself? What would happen if nobody wanted to answer
your questions, if your new boss is awful, if your teacher is mean? What
would happen if you do something wrong because you've never done it before?
I can't answer those questions for you, so you do
it. Gut reaction, what would happen? Then find the true answer
to that question. This is kind of like that "positive
visualization" stuff that people say works, but I've never really found
saying anything like, "You will be successful, you will do
well on this test, you will be confident" to be very
helpful, because honestly, I don't know that. It's more
likely that there will be a positive outcome, but that is not rock-solid, 100%
truth. I can't stand on that and live my life by positive thinking about
what I will do, because sometimes, I screw up.
This is truth: "When I called,
You answered me; You made me bold and stouthearted" (Psalm 138:3).
"Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock
eternal" (Isaiah 26:4). "Surely this is our God; we trusted in
Him, and He saved us" (Isaiah 25:9).
"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold
of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
(Isaiah 41:13)
"Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I
not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses.
Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not
one." (Isaiah 44:8)
Truth is not based upon what everyone else thinks
about you, or even what you think about yourself. Truth is based
upon who God is, and all that He is for you. You are not
your own, and that is perhaps one of the most comforting truths out
there.
You don't have a clue what you're walking into, but
He does. You don't have any idea how you're going to react, but He
already saw it. Maybe He even chuckled at it. But He's also already
dealt with it.
He knows where He wants you and He knows how to get
you there. He knows your heart is beating out of your chest, and He knows
how to slow it down when it's time. He knows how to take control of your
fear if only you'll ask Him. There is no "what if" He cannot
answer, no unknown situation that is not yet fully known by One who loves you
completely.
We follow the Master because He is good. We
step where His sandals stepped because in His wake is healing and freedom and
an adventure we didn't know was possible. We follow Him on land so that
we can step out onto the water knowing His character.
Imagine Peter's "what ifs" as he stood on
the edge of the boat.
What if I do exactly what I really should do
and sink right off?
Peter's prior experiences told
him that the Lord would not set him up for failure.
What if I start to drown?
Peter's knowledge of the Healer
told him that even if he died pursuing Christ, there was nothing to stop a
miraculous resuscitation.
What if I don't have what it takes to walk on the
water?
Peter knew quite, quite well that
success was completely independent of his own qualifications and entirely
dependent on Christ.
And sweet reader, should your worst fears come to
pass, you aren't left out to dry (or drown). "Immediately Jesus
reached out His hand and caught him" (Matthew 14:31). He could have
left Peter to flail. He could have taught him a lesson about the
importance of having faith. He could have let him sputter and choke and
regret his decision to come but that is not what He does. He
rescues and redeems. When your worst-case scenarios come true and your
grand plans for success go south, He immediately reaches out and catches
you so that even a situation that has gone horribly awry becomes a purposeful,
miraculous thread in a tapestry of His unfailing grace and goodness, the whole
of which we may not see until we are with Him in glory.
Walking on the water, looking at the churning waves
and wondering what on earth he was thinking, Peter was quite safe, for he was
in the presence of a heavenly Friend who had invited him to come. When he
began to fall, he was no less safe; in fact, out on the water with Jesus, he
was safer than he would have been in the boat. Where the Lord calls
is always safest.
So, my friend, do not be foolish. Don't get
out of the boat unless Jesus asks you to (what if all the other disciples
decided to throw themselves off the edge of the boat?). Get out because
He extends His hand and says, "Come." There's no safer place
than the uncharted waters where He stands defying the very laws of physics He
created.
But what if there really are monsters? comes the
whisper in the back of our mind.
Well then…won't that be an
adventure?
