NEW LIFE

NEW LIFE

Just to be clear, I am not inclined to seek thrills.
Comfort zones, good.
The thrill rides at the fair never had that much appeal.
The only reason I ever tried them was peer pressure.
If I record a football game to watch later, I don't mind learning the outcome before I watch it, so I don't have to feel that stress.
If my team lost, I don't really need to see how.

Adrenaline, while necessary in certain situations, kinda makes me jumpy and nervous. I am not addicted to it.

I like people to like me.
Never have liked to make people around me uncomfortable.

I was always "decently athletic", strong for my slight build, having pretty good hand-eye coordination, pretty fast runner.
But training was not my strong suit.
Laziness was my default position.
So mediocrity in athletics was the usual result.

School was easy for me, at least through  high school.
I didn't have to study. I just got it.
In college, that "lazy gene" got me.
College, not so easy.
I didn't do well.

In love, well, don't we all want what makes us happy?

In work, wanting to be liked, I always tried my best to please my bosses.
I usually did.
Sometimes, life would throw me a choice that was difficult to reconcile with my easy-going nature.
The stress of that type of decision made me jumpy and nervous.
I chose badly.
Once, I got fired for stealing.
Once, I got fired for lying about getting fired for stealing.
Not my comfort zone.

Generally, everything I ever did in any area of my life was for my own self-preservation, anything I could do to keep my life from being too hard.
Even line on a level slope.

"When I became a man, I put away childish things."

May 8, 1978 everything changed.

The focus of my life that had always been inward, suddenly began to be upward.
The God that I had ignored most of my life, suddenly called me to come to Him.

I heard.
I came.

I find myself being pushed to "step out of my comfort zone."
My tendencies are still there, to hide, to put up walls.

But, there is a power that is not my power, that moves me, directs me, talks to me, teaches me, understands me.

Loves me.

"And when I run with Him, I feel His pleasure!"