Leap of Faith

We all have faith in someone or something.  To have faith means we believe or trust in someone or something that we cannot see and we are willing to take a risk for that belief.  So many innovators have taken risks with their ideas and have created inventions that have changed our world.  It all starts with a leap of faith.  No matter our age, gender, ethnicity, or role in life, we all need to take a leap of faith. 

This last weekend I spent time at my first writer’s conference.  At the West Coast Christian Writer’s Conference, I noticed quickly that 85% of the demographic was women over the age of forty.  Older women taking a leap of faith for someone to finally hear their voices in the written word.  Older women taking a risk for their writing to be critiqued.  It is not easy for anyone, but especially for the demographic of people who struggle to be heard. 

If we struggle, we grow.  If life is easy, we believe that everything we do will not be a challenge and we will not be challenged in life.  The one thing that all of us women had in common at this conference is that we are tired of being comfortable.  We are ready to take a risk and to struggle.  Taking a leap of faith takes vulnerability.  If we are willing to be vulnerable to others, then we will reveal to others who we truly are. 

Anyone in the Bible that was able to conquer any battle had to be vulnerable.  They had to be willing to take a risk and get out of their comfort zone.  It was always a leap of faith.  Peter stepped out of the boat.  David volunteered to fight Goliath.  Moses’s mother put her son who was supposed to be killed as a baby in the river, and sent her daughter to watch him; he was saved.   It was only after those leaps of faith that they were able to fulfill what their mission was. 

At this writer’s conference, I was encouraged to continue to take a leap of faith and allow my voice to be heard in my writing.  Like all the other women over the age of forty, I refuse to be comfortable.  I want to be challenged and I want to challenge others.  God is waiting for us to move.  We can choose to move and make a difference with the gifts and talents we have been given, or we can choose to blame God and others that we never get done what we want to get done.  I choose to move and make a difference.  What will you choose?