Take A Trip on the Wild Side

IT IS A DIFFICULT PLACE to be when you don’t fit in like you once did. Your friends changed, or you changed, and whatever you were doing with them last season has lost its appeal.

As you well know, this has been going on your whole life; fitting in and then not fitting in. It is a cycle of life, which often makes us feel like hamsters on a wheel. Going nowhere.

There is a certain pain that comes when you don’t fit in, but pain is not a bad thing.

Pain is a signal to wake you up.

Something is wrong and your spirit is demanding attention.

You have two choices before you. You can take the easy way out and kill the pain with your favorite method of killing pain. And go back to sleep.

Or, you can take a walk outside your normal behavior and see what your spirit is asking for.

Pain always provokes fear, and it is fear that speaks words of death and dying. Fear is an emotion chosen by your subconscious mind, but in the moments when you are alert, you can consciously choose another emotion that will help you to uncover what your spirit needs.

I recommend you try on the emotion of hope, for if you think about it; you are always, at any given moment in your life, standing in the possibility of fear or hope.

As long as you are fitting in, you may not be aware that you are feeling hopeful.

Hopeful that time will stand still and your future will always be just as it is.

Hopeful that you will receive from the people, places, things, and circumstances a full measure of love, respect, significance, and security.

Hopeful that you will not be embarrassed, ashamed, or humiliated by your behavior or those in whom you associate.

But, when you are not fitting in, it is a certain measure of hope that you have lost. Can you agree?

When hope is realized, there is no pain.

You may have suffered pain in order to get to that place where you fit in, but once there, your spirit is satisfied. However, in the same way that your physical body alerts you through pain that you are hungry, or that you are feeding it with the wrong sustenance, so will your spiritual self.

Neither can thrive on counterfeits.

Both will make you believe you are going to die if you don’t do something different. These parts of you, both important to your wellbeing, are telling you the truth.

Take courage, for it is God who leads you outside the camp where you can be still and listen.

Don’t try to make this a religious experience.

It is simply a moment where your spirit can be fed with the bread of life, and the living water Jesus said that he was. This is where you will find peace and rest.

If you will make a habit of choosing the hope found in a loving God over the fear found in the pain of loss, you will receive the promise God has made to you that he will give you a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.

Over time, the need to fit in will not be nearly as appealing as the journey to find your purpose in life.

You weren’t created to be like everyone else.

No, God had a plan in mind just for you.

But before he can set you free from Shame and Humiliation, who hijacked the real you, and before he can set you free to reach the potential he sees in you, he wants you to see if you are ready to break free from your ordinary life. If you are, get ready for a wild adventure.

If you are not ready, the Lord will wait.

And let you rinse and repeat.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Malachi 3:6, Leviticus 26:11,44, John 14:27,2 Corinthians 4:7-12,2 Corinthians 4:16-18,Psalms 46:10,Hebrews 4:7

As always, it is my intent and hope that my words may encourage you wherever you are in your journey.

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