Our spiritual journey invites us to take risks. We can not always play it safe. There is no growth without risk, without adventure.
So when the time comes, Spirit will invite us to take a risk. Sometimes that risk feels huge…
Spider-man: Homecoming
Spider-man is at the top of the Washington Monument, attempting to break the southwest window so he can get in and save his friends…
A police helicopter arrives and tells him to get down. The police warn him that they will open fire if he does not descend.
Spider-man hesitates for a moment, pondering his course of action. He can play it safe and go down. But that would mean the death of his friends. No, he has to risk everything to save them.
So, instead of going down, Spider-man goes to the top of the tower and prepares for a jump that could kill him if he misses.
Spider-man: “Oh my God, I’m going to die!”
He jumps. He uses the gliders in his suit to sail over the helicopter. Then fires his web shooters at the base of the helicopter, using them to aim him toward the window. Sailing through the air he breaks the window as he hits it.
He arrives just in time. The elevator starts to fall. Using his web-shooters he grabs the elevator and stops it from falling.
Spider-man, with his feet against the elevator shaft: Oh, I did it!! (expression of surprise and amazement)
Spiritual Journey:
We have two forces that are constantly active in our lives: the force that wants us to grow, and the force that wants to keep us safe, content. Balancing those forces in our lives is important. We need to grow, to risk, to change. Yet, we need those times when we feel safe, to ground, to recover, to reassess. Together, they are like the ying/yang of our spiritual life.
Personal and spiritual growth requires risk.
Sometimes the risk may be small: A willingness to open your heart to love, to be vulnerable with another person.
Or the risk may require more, but feel calculated: A sabbatical, or an intentional stirring of your life’s pot to see what happens.
The risk may ask a great deal of you: Trusting Spirit in a career shift, such as giving your dream a shot!
Whatever the risk, it comes with a cost: requiring you to be willing to give something up, to make room for and to be open to healing, transformation, growth, expansion. Each risk changes you. It teaches you about your inner world: connecting you with your strengths, inviting you to come face-to-face with your Shadow. The risks push you to be a better person, and to align more fully with your life purpose, your soul purpose.
Taos, NM and me:
When I moved to Taos, NM to work on Weaving Sacred Spaces and prepare it for launching, it came with a cost. One cost was financial. That was calculated and I was intentionally willing to pay that cost.
The other was an inner cost, one I did not expect to face. The risk was an invitation to dive deep into my Shadow, to feel into the wounds, the pain, the ugliness that I hid away, that needed healing. The risk was a willingness to confront what I shoved away and ignored, and integrate that into the entirety of my being — no more Shadow vs Light, rather a fully experienced flow of ying/yang, shadow/light; a Oneness of being. The cost was huge pain, that at times felt like I was tearing in half, and struggle that brought about tremendous healing, growth, strength, courage and expansion.
I left Taos a completely different person than I arrived as, more aligned with my Higher Self, more aware of my soul’s purpose. My time in Taos placed me firmly and confidently on my life’s path.
Without that risk, I would not be who I am today. I am grateful that I took that risk, that I made that leap!
When Spirit invites you to risk, to take the leap, are you willing to jump?
It may be scary. It may come with great cost. But it will be worth it…
You will experience the fullness of redemption.
