First Things First

 O K, I know that I promised to regale you with the rest of our journey to the East, but I have been thinking a lot lately about faith. So I am going to interject here for a moment. I was watching my son get up on a chair to eat at the table and after he had enjoyed his meal he looked around and realized that if he wanted to play he had to get down. Even though he had spent quite a bit of energy climbing up to his vantage point, and he had enjoyed his time there, he was ready to continue his day by getting down and playing. His current situation provided little in the way of future enjoyment as it was a limited area. So his vantage told him that to run, jump, summer salt and play with toys he had to descend. So he began, He reached past the middle rung of the chair and not detecting the floor, froze. Clinging to the chair. Fear of falling and possibly hurting himself froze him in the awkward position of hanging to the side of a kitchen chair, legs desperately searching for purchase.
 So like anybody in this situation, he assessed his options and then cried out for help. I did what any parent would do when faced with a child dangling 2 inches from the ground, I told him to let go.
 From my vantage point and experience I knew that he could easily make it to the ground without hurting himself and then he could enjoy all that was waiting for him. He had to trust that by listing to me and letting go of what he thought was safe, would be better then staying in his now very limited position. It didn't take him long to make up his mind. (Thank goodness he trusts me!) And he dropped down and ran for his toys.  He spent the next few hours enjoying himself.
 I think that sometimes we put ourselves in situations like this. We get to a place in life that is comfortable, even enjoyable at times and then we realize that we have cut ourselves off from real freedom so we try to get out of the situation only to succumb to fear that what we are doing will cause more pain to us and we freeze. Often causing ourselves unnecessary pain in the process. So often we are dangling just inches from where we need to be and we can't see it. We need help. I know that if we put our faith and trust in the Lord then we can make it to that place we need to go. Just as I knew that if my son just let go he could have what he really wanted, some times we need to just let go of what is holding us back and accept that our Loving Heavenly Father has our best interests at heart. That's what Faith means to me.