Big words for a Friday.
Be brave – take a risk – release the outcome.
These words have been rolling around in my head this week as I continue the Spiritual Exercises. I was invited to pray with the parable of the woman with two coins (the one where she gives all she has), the paralytic (the one where his friends go so far as to lower him through a roof for healing), and the rich man (the one where he goes away sad).
As I read all of these, I kept thinking about these words:
Be brave: Each of the people in these Gospel stories either were brave or were called to bravery by Jesus. In each instance, Jesus rewards or celebrates the braver one.
Take a risk: Giving all the money she had was risky. Lowering their friend through a roof was risky. Being asked to rid himself of the one thing that stood between him and God was risky. Notice the one that didn’t take the risk went away sad.
Release the Outcome: When I imagined the woman putting her two coins in the basket, I got the image of (don’t laugh) the elderly woman at the end of Titanic throwing the expensive necklace into the sea with a smile and a casual “oof”. Both the woman from the movie and the woman from the parable released the outcome. So did the men lowering their friend through the roof. The rich man was still considering, I guess. Or maybe he was clenching his fists tight trying to control his destiny.
These are such hard words for me even though I see time and again what fruits come when they are lived out.
In fact, I have friends right now doing just this, and I see how it lights them up.
What we need to be brave for, what risks we may need to take, what outcome we have to let go of will be different for each one of us. They may be big or small. But I’m sure we can all think of something.
So my prayer for you and for me this Friday is to take the words off my fictional billboard and live into them.
Be brave – Take a risk – Release the outcome.
You’ll never know until you do.
