Good morning…

As she nestled into the monastery for a weekend retreat, my friend read these framed words on the wall.

Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation and be notorious. – Rumi

By nature, she plays it safe. She heeds the warning signs of her fears. Her reputation has taken a long time to build, why destroy years of hard work? The word “notorious” means to be widely and unfavorably known, famous for something bad. How could this be a godly goal?

The words needled her for a while before they set her free.

She described going on a silent walk and coming upon a large lake surrounded by a fence. “I actually hate big bodies of water,” she told me. “They scare me because I can’t see the murky bottom and the water is dangerously over my head. But I thought for a while about the saying, ‘Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation and be notorious.’ I felt inspired from within to climb the fence and walk to the edge of the water, something I never, ever would have done before.”

She went on to share how God met her on the shore in a powerful way. As she said nothing, God said something, reminding her of His personal, unconditional love. His unending grace is deeper and higher than this mammoth lake. She pondered how often her many fears keep her safely away from accepting God’s murky invitation to live dangerously over her head. My friend is at a crossroads in life, and the choice she is feeling drawn to make has the potential to ruin her pristine reputation in the eyes of those who have boxed God up with a big, tight bow.

Experientially God encouraged her, “Allow your safety to be in Me alone. Live into your fears, knowing I am mighty to save, I am faithful to protect. Destroy your reputation, your tendency to please people, to perform well, to perfect yourself for your peers. The worlds ways are not My ways, so being ‘good’ in My eyes trumps being labeled by others ‘notoriously bad’.”

“I don’t think the way you think.
The way you work isn’t the way I work,” says the LORD.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think” (Isaiah 55:8-9, MSG).

May these words needle you for a while until they set you free.

…Sue…