RISK

If you are truly going to live life and open yourself up to Love, you WILL experience pain. You will fail. You will experience loss. You will come to crossroads and question whether it's worth it. You will want to give up the fight. 

Jesus would tell you, through example, it is worth it. You were worth it. He was mocked, questioned, abandoned, rejected, denied....but he stuck with the fight until the very end when he said, "it is finished". He did that for you, He did that for me. 

Unlike Jesus, we make mistakes when we step out. We try and our best isn't good enough. We fail. 

THEN we get back up and try again and risk one more time. Risk to love. To reach out. To step out. Maybe we risk all and fall over and over. The Lord says get back up and do it again. Take what you've learned and fail forward. With each failure, you move forward, one more step closer to the life He has prepared for you. 

I think of a baby learning to walk and they fall over and over. They take a step and stumble and get back up to take another. This process continues for hours and days. What are mom and dad doing through the process? They're cheering baby on and anticipating what they know is coming. They know their baby will walk someday. They're enjoying the process and helping them through the falls. 

The Lord too is watching us, cheering us on and interceding for us to get back up. To make ourselves vulnerable again and risk it all to follow after Him in His plan for our lives. Why? Because he knows what he has planned for you to do and He knows you will do it. He isn't affraid of your failures and falls. So don't be affraid of whatever holds you back from being who He created You to be. The only real defeat is in failing to get back up. Take the risk.