Has God ever dared you to do something? Not in the sense of the game Truth or Dare. That game always seems to involve something risque or stupidly risky. I’m asking if God has dared you to leave your comfort zone, to push past your self-imposed limits. He dared me this evening, during the most routine activity.
Today was a dreary day. It rained all morning and it remained cloudy long after it stopped raining. Shortly after the boys woke from their final nap (I think they took three today, but it could have been four) the sky finally cleared up. I couldn’t let the opportunity to be out in the sun pass us by, so I put them in cooler clothes and we were out the door.
We circled our cul de sac before making our way to the cul de sac at the other end of our street. I do this most mornings by myself and forgot how difficult it is to go up the slight incline from one end of our street to the other while pushing the boys in their stroller. The cold I’m fighting didn’t help either. Or the fact that I only walked one day this week due to said cold.
As we made our way to one of the main roads in the neighborhood, David and DJ were returning from their trip to a nearby disc golf course. They pulled up next to us to say hello to the boys. David reminded me of the time and I promised to not be much longer. We walked our normal route and I was just about to turn to go home when I felt compelled to take on the challenge of walking up a rather steep incline. (Dare #1)
My Team MOMENT’em YouTube playlist was playing on my phone and was pretty pumped up. I was listening to For King and Country’s “Run Wild” as I walked down the hill, and Shawn McDonald’s “We Are Brave” came on as I walked around the cul de sac at the bottom of the hill. {You are correct in surmising that cul de sacs are popular in our neighborhood} The upbeat tempo and encouraging lyrics definitely made an impression on me as I thought about my approach for getting back up the hill. I contemplated walking up the hill as I did with the earlier incline but that thought was quickly interrupted by “Just go for it. Give it everything you’ve got!” (Dare #2) And that’s exactly what I did.
I ran up the hill as fast as I could while I pushing the stroller. Although I couldn’t take a sprinter’s stance (I was pushing a stroller, after all), I definitely ran like I was sprinting. My heels didn’t touch the ground until we were up the hill. I was so winded that I choked on the first post-hill gulp of water I took. But I made it up the hill. And I felt pretty awesome.
Running up the hill was easier than walking the much smaller incline earlier in the walk. I’m certain that it was my approach. Not so much physically as mentally and spiritually. I saw the first incline as a “have to” – something I had to do to get to what I wanted to do. I had to climb that initially hill to get to the walk the rest of our route. I didn’t have to walk up the the steep incline in order to get back to our house. I deliberately went out of my way to take on the challenge of pushing the stroller back up the hill. Why? Because I looked at it as a “get to”.
This time last year I was recovering from a Cesarean. It took me weeks of working with a chiropractor to sleep without discomfort and several more weeks to start walking without experiencing excruciating pain. Over the past year and a half, simple movements I had once taken for granted became huge accomplishments for me. Tonight’s dare from God was like a wink and a nod Him showing me how far I’ve come – physically, mentally, and spiritually – since I first found out I was pregnant with twins.
God meets us in the everyday, in the routine, and dares us to step out in faith. Today, it was running up a steep hill in my neighborhood. And as I basked in the awesome feeling that came with meeting that challenge, I thought that was it. I finished that God assignment and figured my evening would return to its routine. But then God dared me to write this blog entry and followed up that initial dare with a second – to start writing regularly.
To write for the first time in over a month. Writing again after taking a month off (not intentionally at first) is like walking up that first small hill. The challenge of writing again regularly, that’s like taking that much bigger hill. It’ll all come down to my approach. Will I see this call to action as a have to or a get to? Has God recently dared you to do something? Something that had you thinking “Nah, I can’t do that.” Maybe you knew you could do it but thought you would look silly doing it. Whatever it is, dear sister, know that you are not alone in your uncertainty and discomfort. I’ll be praying that you meet each God dare with a get to mindset. Please be in prayer that I do the same.
Faith Fitness and Mommy Stuff 