A few weeks ago I spent six days in the Dominican Republic with my boys.  I went at the request of a good friend of mine who is living as a missionary in the country.  I spoke each night at a different church – each an hour or two away.  So during the day, while my boys enjoyed the tropical weather, made new friends, and learned what it was to have rolling power outages, take cold showers, and hike down to the river, I thought, prayed, and contemplated.

What does it take to be willing to uproot your whole family and move them to another country because you sense a specific call of God on your life?  It takes boldness, it takes courage, and it takes a willingness to live on the edge.

Part of the reason I have not written or podcasted in some time is because I’m living a bit at the edge.  The edge of my abilities, the edge of my strength, and the edge of my own expectations for my life.  But the edge is a familiar place.  I’ve learned time and time again that when we are living at the edge because we are operating in obedience and following God’s lead, the edge – as nerve wracking and adrenaline producing as it may seem – may be exactly where we are supposed to be.

  

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There is beauty at the edge.

At the edge of our dreams.

At the edge of personal pain.

At the edge of everything that we know to be true.

Right where what is solid seems to end.  Right there.  There is where there can be infinite beauty.

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The closer that we get to the edge the more we get to see and appreciate the beauty of the unknown.

Right where I thought that what I knew for certain disappeared right from underneath my feet.  Right there.  That’s is where I have experienced the beauty of that which resides only in the unknown, the untraversed, the untamed, and the seemingly unruly.

But I had to be willing to sit there and look.

I’ve had to stop being afraid to go right to the edge, sit, and take it all in.

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The edge has been scary at times but after a while it has become calming and familiar.

The edge initially gives more questions without answers but after awhile, for the one who is willing to wrestle if necessary, the answers come.

Every single time I’ve been at the edge, I have been able to walk away with the answer or answers I needed.

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The edge has helped me to focus with laser precision on how I actually have no control but then it has also given me confidence to affect that which I totally have the ability to influence greatly.

When we are at the edge, the edge of our sanity, the edge of our ability, the edge of our energy…

When we are at the end of our own knowledge, our strength, or our spiritual confidence.

There.

Right there.

The edge can become the a launching pad for the next leg of our journey.

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The edge.

That is the place where I have recognized my limitations.

But the edge, the end of my own abilities, is also the place where I have come to know best of the power of God that lives in me.

And I have learned that the power He has can overshadow and eclipse my limitations making anything possible, if I will let it.

The edge.

There is beauty at the edge.

When you get to the edge, the end of yourself, and realize that you are just one person in a sea of billions of people, in an vast ocean of planets, stars, and constellations, in a collections of universes and galaxies.

When you get to the edge and realize that your one life matters greatly to the One who made you and who put all you see into a living, breathing, rhythmic cycle of existence.

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When you get to the edge and realize that your life matters and that the One who created your one life also wants to guide you in how to use your one life.

Right there.

At the edge.

That’s right where you will want to be.

Once you understand how life-giving the edge can be, you will no longer seek to avoid the that place.

You will embrace that place.

And you will know that living on the edge is just the place where real living begins.

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My friend Vicki and her husband Rueben serve the Lord with the lives in and around the city of Santiago.  They plant churches, train leaders, and run multiple children’s center that feed, educate, and nurture children when are not in school.  If you would like to learn more about their ministry, please visit them at www.hope4drnow.org/