Without A Net

Whether we realize it or not all of us are walking a tight wire of some kind in our lives and our balancing act is always at risk given the thin nature of the “reality” we subscribe to.  Everyday, people in this hard little world fall off that wire, land hard, and are injured in way’s that can be hard to heal. The repercussions of that fall are what we sometimes call a “crisis” which interestingly enough is a word that’s based on the Greek term Krinein which means to decide.

Decide what?

Any trapeze artist you happen to meet will most likely tell you that a certain level of fear or respect is essential to the performance of their craft, but that if you allow that fear to take center stage walking that wire becomes impossible. And while a net can be something that catch’s us and keeps us safe from a fall, it can also be used to keep us in bondage after we’ve lost our balance and fallen into a trap or snare of some type! Safety is of the Lord, but fear is a symptom of spiritual bondage to sin. How is it that after thousands of years we’re still hiding in the bush’s just as Adam did in the garden from a loving God?

I think that the deepest fear any of us have is that of not being loved. Why does it seem as though we run from the thing we need the most or pretend to be above it in some way? Perhaps it’s because in lieu of being able to procure it, we’ve taken on the mantle of god in our own lives and have arrogantly chosen to express or exercise our “divinity” by making god-like choice’s about our lives that no one else can change, even if we’re the one’s that suffer as a result.

Isn’t that a shame?

Ultimately it isn’t us who make our choices, but instead they, who make us!

It’s at these familiar crossroads, these moments of sudden confusing complexity, that like any other subscription we’ve signed up for our fear delivers to us our default answer….

What about me?

Our lives become a frustrating failure when we try to take on Gods role in our lives or when we project onto God our flawed human understanding of love. Most of these misguided actions and bad choices flow from a core belief that the universe we live in is a decidedly unfriendly place, that real love is a lie, and that if there is a God He’s probably mad at us!

No wonder we’re anxious and afraid to step out!  We’re walking on a wire and we believe that we’re working…

Without a net!

Why am I saying all of this? Because there are way too many people who go through their lives making decisions that originate from thoughts sponsored by fear, not love. Who instead of living the life God had planned for them are tangled up in the net of this world and are presently miserable as a result! If hell is an eternal separation from God, Who is love, then you might say they’ve already started doing their time here on earth! In fact, I’ve heard more than a few people refer to their lives as being a “living hell”…I don’t believe that Gods pleased with any of those things at all, actually I think it break’s His heart, mine too…and since I’m trying to be on His team I’m interested in doing whatever He enables me to do to help others choose Him instead!  Being a Christian is simply an ever growing awareness of who we are in Christ and the joyful acknowledgment of Gods saving love that has freed us from the necessity of fear in each and every moment and circumstance of life!

What it means for each of us is that,

Above all we are greatly loved!

Come what may, we do have a safety net…

Jesus caught each of us when we cried out for Him to save us!

You’ve done that right?…Is your life going to suddenly become perfect after you come to know the Lord? NO! what it does mean is that whatever you go through in this life He’s in the midst of it with you! God never promised us a smooth ride, but He has promised us a safe landing! We don’t have to live a life of fear, shame and doubt, or be prisoners to things like worry and anxiety and there’s no reason this life has to be an empty meaningless existence without a hope for eternity when all we really have to do is stop and simply reason this thing we call faith out!

Have YOU traded in fear for faith!

That’s a choice I’m committed to making every day!

“Faith is that state of being in which we’re able to find present comfort in the arms that have held us up all along, and future peace based on the past and the present.”

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