“Release the part of you that wants to protect and open up the part of you that wants to explore.”

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus, (2014-02-25) from his book, The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art (p. 52). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

I live in greater Los Angeles. There is so much here to experience and explore but to really do it right, you have to get in a car and that is one dangerous thing to do. When I retired, we moved to Long Island in New York. A great place to live but the traffic was horrendous to the point that most people took the train to work in Manhattan and of course to many, Manhattan is scary. You could get mugged.

When I retired Margaret and I decided that every Saturday where ever we lived, we would explore. As a Pastor I worked on Saturday which was the day Margaret was off so after I retired we used our Saturday to see and experience where we lived. We went all over the place on Long Island and New York City. We even made it to upstate New York and saw where they had Woodstock and to Hyde Park where FDR lived. We went to Connecticut and saw where Mark Twain lived and saw the Mansions of Newport, Rhode Island. By the way, Rhode Island was the 48^th State I visited and South Dakota was my 49^th. I loved Mt Rushmore.

Now in Florida we did the same thing. Every Saturday we found something new and now we are in California and we are all over the place. There is so much to experience if you are not afraid to explore. Yes it can be dangerous. I mean those trucks, those cars, all that traffic can be dangerous and then those people.

I understand why we have in our brain that part that strives to protect. I understand but there is also the part that strives to get us to explore. I like what Mark Batterson said in his book, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life. In talking about the adventure he had that sacred him to death, he climbed Half Dome at Yosemite National Park and he said, “If we keep putting one foot in front of the other, it’s amazing how far we can go! The hardest part of the hike wasn’t physical. It was mental.” He said that when he finally got to the top some had etched into the rock, “If you can do this, you can do anything.”

Listen, life is an adventure and God has placed so much out there to experience and explore. We just have to get out of our protected comfort zone and find it. Saturday is coming and I am looking forward to it.

What about you?

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