Barbarian

In Erwin McManus’s book Barbarian Way he tells a story of his son on the roof of their house asking if he could jump from two stories up. Of course he asked his dad as mom would say no and as expected she did. Dad said, go ahead just make sure you clear the cement. Now when I read this story I thought of my dad in some way. He let me learn on my own over the past years. Now it isn’t that he wouldn’t give me advice or point me in the right direction. He would do that, but always fall short of a clear answer. He would also try to stretch me in my life, which was good. I remember my decision to go into the army national guard. I don’t remember a clear path or him telling me what to do, but I do remember my mom not wanting me to do it and him being supportive of whatever decision I would make. That was all I really needed as my call to step out on my own. Erwin says later “Is it possible your father is also calling you to jump or at least encouraging you to do so? Is the Spirit of God stirring within you, pleading with you to stop settling for the status quo.” For me over the years there have been multiple times that I believe my Heavenly Father was calling me to jump. Now I wasn’t always excited for these jumps, but I guess you could say I did them anyway. As I look back over the past say 8+ years of my life, where I have come and gone. It only amazes me how I have changed and how these jumps have shaped my life.

I remember the reason my mom didn’t want me to go into the guards was fear of going to war or having to serve over seas. Now I am by no means one that takes a lot of risks and I was fine with that until I read this. “It is true that the enemy will essentially leave you alone if you are domesticated.” I pulled up domesticated on http://www.dictionary.com because I have always kind of taken it as a semi-negative word. Here is what it said “to tame (an animal), esp. by generations of breeding, to live in close association with human beings as a pet or work animal and usually creating a dependency so that the animal loses its ability to live in the wild”. I think I have more fear of becoming dependent or losing my ability to do something than I do of most anything. I want my faith to be strong and focused on who He is and what He has in store for my life.

I look back over the last three years or so and I have seen many people struggle in life. This whole domesticated quote makes me think. I have seen friends struggle with a wife having severe back problems in which she needed surgery, a miscarriage in a strong marriage, a man who’s two year old son has a battle with cancer, a women get multiple concussions, aneurisms and other health issues. All these just before the people were to leave or planning to go on a mission trip. There are even more that I know of second hand but these I have just heard of or seen first hand in the past couple years. It really makes me think hard on this whole domesticated statement. Are there times in my life that I become tamed/domesticated? Is my life easy because I am not living extremely for Him? That my faith has become weaker in which Satan may not worry about me as being a threat to his plan.

This doesn’t mean that I am going to live a crazy lifestyle jumping off of cliffs, sky diving, or bungee jumping, but that I want to focus more on stepping out of that comfort zone I think I may have put myself in far to often and have more faith. I have a great person in my life who once told me that I remind her of a Rhinosourus for their strength and stability. Well, I just found out that a group of Rhinos is called a Crash. Not a herd, but a crash. The reason behind this is that they can run 30mph but can only see 30 feet in front of them. Am I ready to run full speed a head without being able to see where I am going? Just running after Him in Faith………