Fenced in places, or wide-open spaces

𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗’𝚝 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝙸 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚍𝚎-𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗, 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎. 𝙒𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣’𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙞𝙣. (OUCH!) 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗’𝚝 𝚜𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚕, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙖𝙮……𝙾𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝚞𝚙 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜. 𝙻𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢!”
(𝟸 𝙲𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝟼:𝟷𝟷-𝟷𝟹, 𝙼𝚂𝙶)

It’s hard to imagine that a man in chains, sitting in a muddy prison cell thousands of years ago wrote that.  He read my mail.  Am I the only one who sees other people pursuing their dreams, walking in their calling, doing something so breathtakingly dangerous to risk their own comfort zone that causes me to get jealous of their achievement?  Their courage is disrupting my excuses! 

When God spoke to me and said, “𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂, 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊.  𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓎 𝒾𝓉 𝓈𝒶𝒻𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓎 ‘𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒’, 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒𝓇𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒.”   “𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓂𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒾𝓃, 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒾𝓈 𝓇𝑒𝒻𝓊𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓅 𝑜𝓊𝓉, 𝓃𝑒𝑔𝑜𝓉𝒾𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒻𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓁𝓊𝓇𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒹𝑒𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒.”

I love what Paul wrote, “𝓦𝓮 𝓭𝓲𝓭𝓷’𝓽 𝓯𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓲𝓷.”.  Isn’t that cool?  There are NO constraints on our lives to do anything!  So, the lies we hear about our ability to make a comeback, to win at something we’ve never tried before, to learn a new skill or trade, they weren’t put there by God.  That smallness that you feel came from somewhere else.  It came from a lie that was whispered in your ears when you were (probably) at your lowest and because you looked at the circumstances and community of people around you agreeing with that lie, you bought it and began to own it.  But Paul is saying, “God didn’t put restraints on you!  𝓨𝓞𝓤 put restraints on 𝓨𝓞𝓤 .”

I love Hebrews 12:1 that says, “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”. 

So, let’s stop living small.  What is the great thing that He’s asked you to do in 2020?  Is it scary?  Is it outside the boundaries of what you’ve never experienced before?  Are you saying that there is no frame of reference that you can recall having done this before?  Yeah? Then it must be God.  Who else would woo us to step out and trust in only Him?  𝓦𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓪𝓷 𝓲𝓷 𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷 to 𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓸𝓭𝓪𝔂?

What does your wide-open space look like?  Step out.  Go ahead, I dare you. 2020 is waiting.