souldare

Crazy ideas require trust.

When I wrote my list of crazy ideas in my journal yesterday, I noticed that each one of them invited me to trust, to risk and to choose.

Some ideas I chose to follow. Some ideas are yet to be tried. Some of them will just be part of the list. I love to generate ideas, but it’s not necessary for me to actuate each and every one.

Crazy ideas are usually bigger than me. But I have learned from experience that crazy ideas can become reality. They don’t happen overnight. But step by step, I can embrace one of the ideas, and move forward.

When I was in high school, I wanted to go to college. It was a crazy idea because my family didn’t have the money. My school counselor fed me with dreams of Purdue and Cornell, since I was one of the top students in my class. But I knew deep down the dream was impossible.

A couple at church encouraged me to talk with an Air Force recruiter. “Aim High” was the Air Force’s motto, which appealed to me. I made an appointment, and thought I’d be able to get into their ROTC program.  When the recruiter told me I’d have to wait a year to take the entrance exam, the offer to enlist as an airman, with the promise of the Air Force paying for night classes, seemed the expedient thing to do. I was young, naive and wanted to travel.

At the time, unbeknown to me, I was practicing a principle that I now apply to art, writing and every day life:

Trust the process.

I was eighteen years old. I grew up and lived in rural Western New York my entire life. To travel meant going to visit relatives or camping in Canada. Once I enlisted, I was assigned my “general” status. Not rank, but an ambiguous promise of a guaranteed job in some field of expertise.

Part of the process included taking a bus to Buffalo, the nearest big city, to get my Air Force physical. I traveled alone for the first time that I could recall. I stayed in a hotel room by myself. I was scared.

I opened a drawer next to my bed, and there was a Gideon’s Bible. I flipped through the first pages. One of the pages listed topical references with words like peace, hope, fear, and wisdom. I found a verse to comfort me in my fears.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:5,6 (KJV)

Those words comforted me, and to this day, to TRUST is still one of the craziest ideas I have ever allowed to guide my life.

I trust the process. I cannot predict the outcomes, but life will unfold and offer me opportunities to trust, to risk and to choose.

How has TRUST been a crazy idea in your life?