Is playing it safe your goal in life?

Staying safe might seem inviting, but is it practical? Does it allow you to grow? Is it what you're made to do?

Mike was offered a new job in a different locale. He was very excited at the opportunity to get ahead by accepting the position. Mike's wife, Linda, and the children became caught up in his enthusiasm, too. Linda dreamed that she would become acquainted with the other mothers at the children's school and make new friends. The kids would encounter amicable companions and everything would be simply wonderful. The children, by existing in the atmosphere of their parents, absorbed their hopeful and forward-looking perspective. They, too, couldn't wait to begin their new life.

But stop! After the initial shock and excitement wore off, Linda began to doubt if the family ought to make the move. All sorts of obstacles entered into her mind. She wondered if the family should stay where they were. Their friends were here and they had enough money to live on. They were used to the present environment with the same people and activities. It was frightening to leave such comfortable and familiar surroundings. They were happy here so why should they leave that place of refuge?

After writing down all the pros and cons of going or staying, the couple, and the children, decided to sail out into the unknown and try the new venture. Oh, but it was scary, so inconvenient, so difficult and so ambiguous! What if they failed?

Well, things went very well for the family. Although it was lonely at first, they settled in and, just as was promised in Psalms 37:4, God gave them the desires of their hearts, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Their life was better, not worse than before. Had the family stayed in their present environment who knows what skills and talents they would have failed to find and use -- just because fear had kept them back.

You can't always remain where it's safe. Almost everything in life requires we leave the familiar in search of a better life, to learn a new skill, to enter into marriage or begin a different job. If you stay where you are you may be safe, but will you be happy?

Birds fly south each winter to find warmer climate where food is plentiful. Who knows the fear they feel. Many die on the journey as they endure hardship along the way. Yet, many are able to return again in the spring to resume their lives again -- lives that are familiar but not exactly the same. That tree, they used to nest in, may have been cut down or the bird-feeder been moved. Regardless, the birds of the air do what is necessary. We, too, must reach out and investigate that which is foreign -- and become what God has intended that we be. You are built for much more than you'll find if you stay in the same place pursuing the identical interests the whole of your life.

Our purpose may be found along other avenues than in what comes easily. Anytime you tackle or encounter an unlike circumstance, or experience a bit of fear, stress is encountered. You have to push it aside and know that with God, "you can do it."

Every time you enter a door, you never truly know what's behind it, but you attempt to open it anyway. Do you not almost always get through the doorway? And, usually, good things happen. Never fear taking a chance. If you remain safe, who knows what you may have missed or what you have failed to contribute to the world.

United States Navy Admiral Grace Hopper said, "A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things."

Ellen Shuck holds degrees in psychology, religious education and spiritual direction and provides spiritual direction to people at her office.