Color Outside the Lines
Written by
Shennel James
Published on
September 13, 2024
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This year, I opted for an annual membership to one of the state parks twenty minutes away from home. It’s a great place to think, settle, reflect, and gather my thoughts. I explored the park a few months back and ventured out a bit. On that day of exploration, a snake around two feet in length appeared on the trail. Needless to say, my adventure came to an abrupt end. That day affected my decision in the days ahead, as my days of venturing off the path at this park were over. I kept it simple, colored within the lines, and stayed on the beaten path. Risk-averse.
Fast-forward to today, I craved the stillness of the streams and the opportunity to reflect. I enlisted Marley, a 130-pound Bernedoodle, to accompany me on the trails. Marley is fifty percent love and fifty percent protection. Hey, he has a presence. This day, unplanned, was a day of adventure. With Marley at my side, I uncovered that the park offered much more than I knew existed. The beauty of the still waters, the birds swimming and diving for fish, the climbing of rocks, and the curiosity of this pet led me off the beaten path of my limitation of playing it safe. On this day, I discovered there was more to explore, and this, my friend, is the same in life.
Fear has a way of keeping us hemmed in a box. We opt for what is familiar and choose to play it safe. We understand the rules of the four walls and decide to remain in them, while missing the more life has to offer.
When exploring our careers, the fear of the unknown allows us to choose to remain in environments we have outgrown. We select career paths that prove safe and have a proven return of success while silencing the gifts within. We subconsciously and at times consciously decide to stay in environments that suffocate our creativity and mask the greatness within, resulting in irritability and personality traits that were never ours to own. The gradual process of giving in, compromising, and silencing the voice within as we play it safe is our own doing, but this can all change with one choice because you, my friend, are here on purpose.
God had brought the Israelites out of Eygyt to take hold of the Promised Land, but they chose fear over comfort. They made the decision to remain in a place of familiarity. They became prisoners of their insecurity. They missed God being with them and their command to walk in faith. It’s easy to see this in the first generations of the Israelites, but the truth is that there are instances when we, too, adapt to the same way of thinking. The beauty of life is we get to decide. On the stroll with the pet, I found fewer people on the trail. Most opted to remain on the path that seemed familiar and obvious. When we choose to color within the lines, we miss so much. We miss being the answer to problems we were called to solve. We miss being the difference we were called to make. But today brings with it another opportunity to choose the path of adventure. The great news is that it all starts with one decision.
Today, I challenge you to explore the areas of your career and life where you are playing it safe and dear to dream bigger and make a step of faith. Is it a class you need to take or a mentor you need to seek out? Do it. Hey, I enlisted Marley on my trail to uncover the wild. The journey you are on does not need to be made alone. Just start.
Deut 1: 5-8 NIV
5 East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
6 The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.”