1 Peter 1:7 (NLT)

These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

As I embrace this life of meaning, living fully with the remaining days I am given, my laundry and dishes pile high. My in-box sits unattended. Dinner ranges from toaster waffles to pot roast. But no matter the cleanliness or the menu, my greatest joys are laughter and conversation, whether it’s simply our family of five or our larger community of friends delighting in each other. We come as we are. Fully vulnerable and accepted. At family bedtime, we exchange confessions for forgiveness. Talents are affirmed, and dreams are encouraged.

I’m living from a new place. Not from a place of perception, but of vulnerability. A place of rescue. A place of surrender. It’s overwhelming and scary, and I can’t imagine life any other way.

Look around you. And then look inside you. Maybe you’re asking the same question I’ve wondered for a long time.

Can we really have it all?

As I consider my journey, I cautiously respond yes. But not in the way one might think. It’s not having a perfect house or a larger salary or smarter children or acquiring more stuff. It’s not completing a task list. It’s not looking perfect. Or being perfect. It’s

a plan derailed,

a life surrendered,

a bondage broken.

It’s knowing who you are. And more important, knowing Whose you are. It’s using your gifts for the rescue of others and not living in fear. And then affirming these truths to the loved ones in your midst.

 Meditation:

So let’s change the question. Do you really want it all? Do you want the joy, the pain, the plan – or the plan derailed? Will you welcome the life that takes you off course?

Because if you do, you will truly live. You will be fully alive. Awakened to a life of reckless abandon, where you bare your heart and soul and you don’t look back. Where you run wild and free from the bondage of fear. Where you laugh and delight in the place of freedom. Where you live with courage because you have been rescued.

Over these last two years, I’ve learned that you can’t take flight without a freefall. So if you’re standing on the edge of your own cliff wondering what to do, just leap.

I promise. It’s worth it.