Take the Blue Line
While I was in Chicago welcoming 2009, I learned something. It’s pretty simple, it’s not easy, and it can bring awesome things into your life if you apply it. It can be summed up in one sentence. Take the opportunities that God gives you and trust him. More about that in a bit.
Now, I’m not one to shy away from trying new things, so when it came time for Adam, Matt, Mark, and I to decide where we would eat our “expensive meal” during our Chicago trip I was hoping for something cool. Somewhere that I couldn’t eat at back home in Ypsilanti. Somewhere that I hadn’t experienced before. So I started to do some research. Everything I found through Googling was either out of our price range or required a dress code that we could not comply with. Part way through I switched to UrbanSpoon, which is a really sweet restaurant finder. It told me that there was a really cool pizza place in Wicker Park called Piece. It sounded cool, but was not near downtown and not within walking distance. I continued searching, but Piece kept popping up in my results as a top rated UrbanSpoon pick and it was within our price range. I kept resisting and trying to find something that would be closer and easier to get to, but I eventually gave in and suggested it to the guys. We would have to take the Red Line subway South to the Loop and take the Blue Line out to the Damen station on the West Side. I had taken the Red Line on several occasions and was confident about navigating it. The Blue Line was a whole new beast.
My sense of adventure and my desire to be in control of the situations I’m in often run straight into each other. I’m a control freak, so getting lost is terrible. You don’t know what to do, you look stupid, and you have to ask for help. I hate all of those things. That night my temptation was to go with what I knew. I wanted to stay near the Loop and within downtown. I knew downtown and I knew the Loop. I would be in control. Or I could decide to take the Blue Line with no guarantee that I would get off at the right station, that the address listed on the internet would be right, that the restaurant would have seats for us, or any of the other things that make an evening out go right.
I have done that so much in my life. My temptation is always to pass up on opportunities that God gives me because I can’t control them or because I don’t know what the outcome will be. He always asks me to follow, but he rarely let’s me in on the destination. I have a hard time trusting God. Can you relate? Do you ever pass up an opportunity because you don’t know where it will lead? Do you ever fore-go something because you won’t be in control of it? Do you ever stay in the Loop instead of taking the Blue Line out?
Here’s the cool part. God totally speaks to this through David’s writing in Psalm 37:5-6.
“Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.
He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,
and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.”
David uses such cool words to describe how awesome our lives can be if we just trust God and take the opportunities he gives us. The Bible has tons of verses that remind us that when we are in control, things will be shaky at best, but when we give control to God it may not be easy, but it will be good.
That evening in Chicago I went with the adventure and the guys and I headed out on the Blue Line. The evening definitely had some bumps along the way and everything didn’t always work out the way I thought it should, but it was a great experience. Actually, I’ve never had a better time in Chicago. As soon as I decided to let go and take the Blue Line the evening was one big adventure that just kept getting better.
It’s a great story, but it’s also a great analogy for our lives. When we decide to let go and trust God by taking the opportunities he gives us we find our lives are full of great adventures that we never would have known to take on our own. He knows our potential and how to unlock it!
This year, I’m committing to trust God and follow where he leads. I’m going to stop asking him to meet me in the Loop and I’m going to start chasing after him. I’ve realized that the only true way to live in his plan and live life to its fullest is to take the opportunities that he gives me. In fact, what would happen if we all decided to take the opportunities that were in front of us? Would you take that class that you heard about? Would you talk to your friend about your spirituality for the first time? Would you commit to reading the whole Bible in 2009? What would you do?
My theme and reminder for this will of course be “take the Blue Line.” So join with me in 2009 and together let’s take the Blue Line by taking the opportunities that God gives us and trusting him.
