{"id":12,"date":"2012-01-22T23:26:07","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T23:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/?p=12"},"modified":"2012-01-23T14:58:31","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T14:58:31","slug":"taking-a-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/?p=12","title":{"rendered":"Taking  Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am not a risk-taker by nature. \u00a0I am a planner, an organizer, a gatherer of information. \u00a0I enjoy routine and familiarity. \u00a0But this business of following Christ, following the Call, it means stepping out to the end of the limb over and over again, following His beckoning into the unknown and, like a child, expecting Him to catch me.<\/p>\n<p>Not that I&#8217;ve learned to climb out fearlessly. \u00a0When I was new to all this, I thought I would get over the fear with experience and prayer and maturity. \u00a0So I pressed on through sleepless nights, wobbly knees, and weight-on-my-chest panic attacks, calls for help flung heavenward, hanging on for dear life, thinking that someday I could be polished and confident out there on my own.<\/p>\n<p>By now I have accepted the fact that the fear is not going anywhere. \u00a0It is part of my brokenness, and instead I have learned to feel it, recognize it for what it is, and step blindly into the unknown future anyway. \u00a0He is big enough to carry all that fear, and big enough to catch me too, and His plans are big enough that I wouldn&#8217;t miss out on them for anything, just for the sake of feeling safe. \u00a0Because nothing is safe in this world except it is in His arms.<\/p>\n<p>So when I started hearing the small voice saying it was time to write again, and it didn&#8217;t fade with time, I looked for a Where and a When, even while the fears were talking in my head about what people would think&#8211; and what if I tried and failed&#8211; and what if I were transparent and it was all for nothing. \u00a0And one day it was quite clear there was a new branch to climb out onto.<\/p>\n<p>Every week in our small group I meet with a roomful of women who are transparent about loving Jesus and wanting to grow more like Him; we laugh and sometimes cry, and share our struggles, and study God&#8217;s Truth to find our way through this life. \u00a0It&#8217;s a personal risk, connecting with other women in a small group, but it is well worth it. \u00a0In the between times, we pray for one another and think about what we have learned so far, and I will write my own thoughts here for them, and for all of us women who are following after Christ into the unknown. \u00a0Because it is worth it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am not a risk-taker by nature. \u00a0I am a planner, an organizer, a gatherer of information. \u00a0I enjoy routine and familiarity. \u00a0But this business of following Christ, following the Call, it means stepping out to the end of the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/?p=12\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning-to-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvNH-c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}