What if we fight the very thing that sets us free?

What if our truest selves emerge after giving up who we already are?

What if we all have the metaphorical equivalent of a big playground slide in our lives (Stay with me)? You know how, as a kid, we all loved to go down the slide?

Didn’t we all line up, paying the price of time at the water park standing on some stairs, for the opportunity of a few seconds on the slide? But what if, when we were at the top of the slide, the slide shifted direction, so we never knew where we would end up? How many kids would want to get on that slide?

Likely none, right? What if we ended up somewhere we don’t want to go? What if the other end of the slide is us in our room, doing homework? Sure, the slide is fun, but why risk it?

But what if figuring out who we are is a bit like going down a slide, a slide that changes direction, and we have no idea where we will end up?

How likely would any of us be to want to go down a slide like that? And yet this is exactly what God promises us when He says that we will be free indeed. He promises us no long-term vision, most of the time. Only a fun time hanging out at the water park with Him. What do I mean? Here’s my story, shortened.

I rolled my dice in college to choose my career. Well, almost. I used my brain, calling the college to ask what careers people held after graduation. But I didn’t ask God to guide me. I had no context for this at that time. Twenty years later, I sensed God saying, that had I asked, and no condemnation that I didn’t, He would have guided me into a different career.

Randomly, it seemed, when I first learned about hearing from God, He spoke to me about me being a writer. This felt surprising, strange. I didn’t study writing at University, I studied Resource Management. This jump across the river was much farther than I could leap on my own strength. Try as I could, I could see no bridge to get to the other side. Failing at something I don’t have training for seems much more likely than failing at what I can already do. And perhaps the biggest obstacle of all, was the question, who would I become if I attempt to cross to the other side?

Is the Lord calling you away from the old and into a new thing? Has He told you to do something that you don’t have the training for? Thus, culturally, is this something that you feel you shouldn’t do? Will you obey anyway? Are you brave enough, yet, dear friend, to travel down your slide?

Then Amaziah, sent orders to Amos: “Get out of here! . . . “ But Amos replied, “I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one. I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.’ Now then, listen to this message from the Lord . . . The Message