Revisiting

I've been revisiting lately. I recently downloaded an old favorite album from iTunes: Amy Grant's The Collection. This CD was our family's first, and we played it on our Colorado road trip when I was in 5th or 6th grade in our first portable CD player. Old school, you get the picture. But it was wonderful to revisit some of my old favorite songs. Songs like Father's Eyes and All I Ever Have to Be inspire me to this day. I can still sing most of the words even though it has been years since I've heard them. My heart is revisiting the beauty and lyrics of these songs.

I have also been revisiting a topic from last summer: bravery and risk-taking. It has come to my attention yet again that I play life safe. I live within the walls set forth by rules and the restrictions laid out by fear of consequences. I think I've been falsely believing that I could protect myself from pain, from difficulty, from fill in the blank, if I lived guarded. But what I've been realizing of late is that if God has a direction for my life, if He wants to take me somewhere or teach me something, no amount of "self-protecting" will prevent God's work. If God wants to grow me and change me, hiding and holding myself back will not work. What's even more is that I might be preventing God from working by playing it safe.

It's time to stop living in fear and start taking some risks. I'm going to seek to follow God's leading even if it requires me to step outside of where I feel comfortable. I'm going to fly, which brings me back to Amy Grant. I came upon this song on The Collection album, and I think it's going to be my risk-taking theme song. So here's to revisiting an old idea, an old song, and even more, here's to flying!

I'm Gonna Fly
by Amy Grant
All my my friends are happy to stay
Here in this yard day after day
But something inside me has called me away
I don't understand but I know I can't stay

I'm gonna fly
No one knows where
But I'm gonna fly
I'm lighter than air

Cause I have felt for the first time
I can be myself
No more faces to hide behind
Just a smile and a dream that's mine
Even if I am the only one who wants to fly

I'm gonna fly
No one knows where
But I'm gonna fly
I soar thru the air

All of my life seems I've waited
For the time to start
Being the person inside of me
Unafraid of being me
No more faces to hide behind
Just a smile and a dream that's mine
Even if I'm the only one who wants to fly

If I had my life to live over again
I'd run bare foot, relax a bit more
And I'd talk to more children
And I'd learn how they laugh
And I'd teach them how I've learned to fly

I'm gonna fly
No one knows where
But I'm gonna fly
I'm lighter than air

I'm gonna fly
No one knows where
But I'm gonna fly
I soar thru the air

Cause all of my life seems I've waited
For the time to start
Being the person inside of me
Unafraid of being me
Even if I'm the only one who wants to fly...
I'm gonna fly