A ship in port is safe.

Right now, I am just so excited about life. This time next year, I could be living literally anywhere in the world. The world is at my fingertips. There's no telling what God has planned for the next few years of my life! In the very places where the enemy brings insecurity and anxiety-- uncertainty about what I'm going to do vocationally, the reality that I am single, and my specific gifts, talents, and dreams-- God is wanting to do the opposite. These places in which the enemy is trying to kill, steal, and destroy my joy and my life are the very places where God is going to move most powerfully. These places are the ones I can be the most excited about. When I really know the heart of my Father, when I know His goodness and faithfulness, my anxiety and insecurity are transformed into excitement and expectancy! Instead of giving into the lies of insecurity, loneliness, or fear, I can be expectant and "confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13). When I fully trust that my life is secure in the Father's hands and that He, with all of His extraordinary power, is working to my highest good, I can risk with Him. I can adventure with Him. I can love relentlessly. I can live fully. All without fear, because His perfect love casts out ALL fear.

When I was little, I had terrible nightmares. One night, I woke up in tears in the middle of the night. I was sick of being terrified every night! A few months before, I had asked Jesus to "come in my heart", and I loved Him as much as my little seven year old heart possibly could, I think. In a moment of pure, innocent faith, I asked Jesus to never let me have a bad dream ever again. And I haven't, to this day. I've had some kind of weird dreams, but never again the terrifying nightmares of my childhood.

I trusted my Father. That night, I went right back to sleep, trusting that my new friend Jesus would protect me. As a small child without all of the grown up "knowledge" that plagues adults, I knew the heart of my Father, so I risked going to sleep again. Had I not trusted that He would hear my cries and intervene, what would I have done? Never slept again? That seems preposterous. But don't we, as adults, do the very same thing? We ask God to intervene, then live so safely that we never risk enough to allow Him to show Himself faithful. We are like ships-- safe while at port, but made for so much more than idly standing on the sidelines of life, collecting dust and allow life to pass us by.