:: courage in liminal spaces ::

courage - noun
"the ability to do something that frightens one" or "strength in the face of pain or grief"

life is full of excuses and when we find ourselves in the worst possible circumstances we often convince ourselves that we're completely stuck and powerless. however, the reality is we're not. the future may be unforeseen, but we still have the power of choice. so take courage.

thomas merton once said, "how do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city?"

so ask yourself… are you in another person's city?

are you too busy pleasing someone else's expectations? have you bought into the stories that were created for you - that this is all you can be; it's in your DNA, it's in your genes, you're stuck and there's nothing you can do about it?

are you worried that you may wake up someday and wind up living in someone else's city and wonder, how did i get here?

are you being true to your own journey?

consider the following list of the 5 top regrets of a dying person on their deathbed:

i wish...
... i'd had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life others expected of me.
... i didn't work so hard.
... i had the courage to express my feelings.
... i had stayed in touch with my friends.
... i had let myself be happier.

the season of lent is liminal space - traditionally the time where you are to do your own hard work, some introspection… is this a life i want? am i suck here? am i so full of excuses that i don't have the courage to take a step in some other direction?

is this the season where you say enough is enough? i don't want to be stuck here anymore. i'm sick of making excuses and blaming my dna or past baggage, etc.

you don't know where the future is, what the future is going to be, but perhaps there's a choice you can make today - in this seasons of lent, this season of introspection - to change it. its a matter of taking one step out of your situation, where you feel stuck and powerless, and taking a tremendous act of courage.

because the very nature of faith sometimes looks like courage, and those first steps of courage are met with little moments of grace.

we have a long list of things, a long list of excuses, that keep us from the hard path. the path that's risky. its much easier to make excuses and stay stuck in one place.

god, give us courage this lent season to say "where you go, I will go" and trust that we will be met with the open arms of grace as we put one foot in front of the other.