Please enjoy another Saturday post from my beautiful wife, Amy Fitzwater, and her “Tidbits of Pondering.”
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As I stand at the edge of great adventure and a deeper faith beckons me
I step forward, and then backward, filled with trepidation yet expectancy
For I know He is good, I know He is loving, and wants the best for me
Yet what will my task cost, how heavy the cross, will it involve loss?
But then I realize how much more the cost of the absence of a cross,
The adventure lost to constant calm and steady sea,
When although the waves may tumble and billow at times,
I’d see Him more clearly walking on the water beside me.
“Rest in me, fret not I say, feed on My faithfulness,
And I will take you where you have not dared to imagine
Fulfilling dreams that you have lost in doubt and busyness.”
Casting off fear and embracing the unknown, surrendering self to be free
For to know Him more deeply, to realize the hope He has planned for me
To embrace the adventure of loving Him lavishly,
Will be worth all cost, the weight of the cross, and paths followed blindly.
For I am the clay, He is the potter, and the purpose of this vessel only He can fully see and know-
And my greatest fear is refraining from using all He has given me,
To live a life mundane, safe, and at the bow
Of my own ship, sailing my own course, missing opportunities to fully know
The hope he has called me to, the power available, the full purpose of His design.
Oh, to know Him more deeply, to see Him more clearly, to live life so fully
That I stand on the other side, amazed where He has taken me,
seeing His careful plan
And realizing how close I was, how easy it would have been, to step away from the plate, and pursue a life of security
And miss out on the wonder, the joy and the splendor of His perfect plan for me.
So as I stand here on the edge of even greater adventure and deeper faith beckoning me
I close my eyes, reach out my hand, and say, ‘so, where are You taking me?’

OR- ‘so, what’s our next step to be?’

Oftentimes I wonder…there are many different people who live very quiet lives of faith all of their life…and then there are men like William Wilberforce who gave his life to his faith, taking leaps of faith that involved great sacrifice and hardship but accomplishing things he only dared dream possible.

I mention him because his story fascinates me and resonates in some ways.  He loved the simple things, and seemed to want to bask in them in many ways, bask in His Father. Yet, there was a life of passion and responsibility that drove him.

I feel a weight of responsibility to fulfill some things that have been placed before me, but often I just want to be in nature, soak up the simplicity of His wonder, take pictures, and write….leaving the work and toil of some of the other things behind.  But I don’t want to miss out on purpose and adventure that He may be beckoning me towards.  My greatest fear is to get to the end of my life and realize I took the easy way out, and didn’t use all He has given me, and missed out on some adventure due to unbelief and unwillingness to grip His hand and embrace the unknown…whatever that means.