Confidence

Doing anything “new” takes courage.  It really doesn’t matter when or where; it could be talking with someone not familar, travelling to a new destination, or even visiting a place for the first time.  As I get older I find myself enjoy the new, unfamilar, and strange less and less.  I like going places where people know my name.  I enjoy returning to places I know I will enjoy.  I catch myself coming back to what works, resistent to things new, untested, or risky. 
 
When I am in a place I consider familiar my approach fits within a standard and norm.  The bad news is that I don’t discover the new resturants, find the great stores which just opened, or even experience something that may have been just outside of my view when I was a plebe.  It is as if I’ve closed my mind to the possiblities of what might, could, and in many cases already is.
 
When I am in New York I don’t have much choice.  The city is way beyond anyone’s ability to fit within a box.  There are too many options, choices surprising at every turn, and a rich complexity and diversity which consistently calls one to explore.  I know some resist; falling back into the few city blocks they call their community.  Yet in the main I find the city pulling, tugging, and at times simply demanding one to examine the new, unusual, and unexpected.
 
I often fit God into a box.  I know and understand exactly what God wants, what God is going to do, and where God will be.  Perhaps New York has a lesson for us – no matter where we live.  We can “depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.”  (Isaiah 26.4)  We can explore the impossible with God.  We realize hope beyond our imaginations.  We can do all these things and more with confidence when it comes to God.  We can set our fears aside.  We can push our doubts away.  After all, we God’s kids.