Brave.

This entry is dedicated to this wonderful CD, Nicole Nordeman's newest, called Brave. The title song is really phenomenal. I think i could listen to it all the time. Before I continue, i want to share the first verse and chorus with you:

The gate is wide, the road is paved in moderation.
Welcome to the middle ground.
It's safe and sound and
they're kind and quick to pull you in
cause it's been fear that ties me down in everything.
But it's been love,
Your love that cuts the strings...

So long status quo,
I think I just let go.
You make me wanna be brave.
I wanna be brave!
The way it always was
is no longer good enough.
You make me wanna be brave.

Anyway, I feel like this is such a powerful song especially because of where I am/my friends are in life. I was talking with my friend Jessie about it today actually. At this stage of life (post-college/starting "real" jobs), we're told the community and fellowship we had in college is just a "college" thing and that it's time to grow up. Now I totally understand that as you get older, you get more responsibilities. duh. But the fact is, even Christians have bought into this lie that the older you get, you have to buy into this "getting through life until you retire" mentality. We're not necessarily told this in words but through actions. My grandmother is on the verge of dying any day now and as I go to the nursing home where death is a constant threat, I realize that if this is my fate at the end of life, i want the Lord to be so deeply engrained in me that the ppl there see him glorified in me til my last breath. I want to be that old woman in the church who is so in love with Jesus that all of the teenagers are so encouraged b/c this woman has known Jesus for 50+ years and is more in love with him than EVER!!!
Going back to the song, I love how it points out that JESUS makes us brave, HE makes us WANT to be brave. He makes us want to go to china on trips or to go anyway he has called us...like Abraham, who did not know where he was going:) story of life right now. My old ways are no longer good enough, and i don't want to be satisfied with what a typical life should look like. I want the life that Christ wants for me. No more middle ground for me. I want to be brave. For Him. That's who He has called me to be. Tight. Thoughts? Oh yes, and you should ALL BUY the cd or get the song on itunes.