I read a story about Janice, a druggie in Los Angeles, who encountered a team from the Dream Center in Los Angeles.  They encouraged her to go to the treatment center at the Dream Center and get the help she needed to wean herself from drugs and start a new life.  She went to the center and didn’t stay 24 hours.  She left and hit the familiar streets of “Skid Row” that had been her home for years–a place where she would beg for money to buy drugs while living on the streets.  She found herself caught in a cycle and unable to free herself from life as she knew it.

To be honest, many of us have “Janice tendencies”.  We find ourselves drawn to the places of comfort and familiarity regardless of the hurt and pain they may cause us.  The comfort hugs us like a warm blanket on a cold, rainy day and doesn’t easily relinquish its hold.  We must struggle with staying warm with the familiar or letting go and walking on water.  The water is cold, different, and seemingly impossible to withstand the weight of our body.  However, the water represents a new beginning, life and freedom to experience all God has created for us.  Though the first step is the most difficult, if we can gather our courage to step, there’s no telling all the great things that await us on the other side.

If Janice could free herself from the comforts of her past life and surroundings, a new life awaited her–filled with blessings.  No doubt there would be hard work and sacrifices required on her part, but they would pale in comparison to her new life–apart from poverty, drugs and pain.

Are you like Janice–struggling with something that’s calling you back to the familiar warm, comforting blanket of life that is robbing you from experiencing something new? Are you ready to stand up, get out of the boat and walk on the water? Take that first difficult, courageous step today and don’t look back.  Your new life awaits.

~Coletta Jones Patterson