This year, I refuse to adapt and conform.
In so many little ways I am tempted to compromise. I get scared, and I’m tempted to sell out the truth for a more comfortable lie. Sometimes I give into fear.
But that was last year. This year, I will live boldly and passionately. I will keep my focus on how I can show my love for others. Love will be the first motion in all my actions.
I will live with reckless abandon. I’ll accept risk and follow my heart, even when I can barely breathe. I will find the beauty and power that accompanies boldness.
“Prosperity knits a man to the world,” wrote CS Lewis, “He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.” This year, I will lose my place. I’ll reside in a life and power that goes beyond the world. I’ll break beyond the barricades of human security that keep me from the truth.
I will choose to love. In the radical way of Jesus, I’ll learn to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with my God. For the sake of my soul, my sanity, and my son, I will renounce the worries and obsessions of this broken world. I will begin to heal, so that I can become a healer. I’ll put on my own oxygen mask first, in order to help those around me.
This year, I choose the risk and adventure of discipleship, even when it’s costly. Especially when it’s costly. Because you get what you pay for.
The risk is worth the reward: life, real life, without limits or shame.
The days ahead will test my heart. There will be moments when I’ll want to tuck tail and run, straight back to the fearful “safety” that Jesus calls me out of. But I won’t. I will dare to love dangerously. To give freely. To embrace uncertainty.
This is my pledge before God: to open my life to the way the Spirit wants to direct me, to change my life in ways I can’t even imagine yet. To let the relentless love and hidden glory of the invisible God shine through my life and relationships. To live unashamed and without fear in the midst of dark and fearful days.
I hope you’ll join me.