Becoming Brave: When You are Ready to Begin Showing Up to Your Life

“Wait, you were line dancing, mom?”  My ten year old questioned me suspiciously as I told him about the wedding his dad and I attended the evening before.

“Yes, yes, I was line dancing.”

I couldn’t read his reaction right away – couldn’t tell if he thought his mom was weird or too old for that.  Or maybe he was just thrown off because line dancing doesn’t make a frequent appearance in our home, but he was clearly having trouble processing this.

“Because you like line dancing?”

He stumped me a bit with that question.  I didn’t have an immediate answer.  So I just spilled my honest thoughts right out on him.

“You know, buddy, I don’t know if I like line dancing or not.  I haven’t tried it enough to really decide.  But what I do know, is that standing on the sidelines, the prospect of dancing made me feel a little shy inside.  When a friend of mine asked me to come out and line dance with her, I quickly responded with “no, thanks” because, I might not have caught on quickly and I might have looked silly out there, you know.

I decided I’d rather pass.

But the longer I stood there the more I realized that looking silly is a pretty ridiculous thing to be scared of.  We have to be willing to risk looking silly in order to learn any new thing.  Ever.  So I walked out on the dance floor and joined the dance.”

And that’s how it went with line dancing.  And that’s how it goes with writing, or running, learning a new hobby or trying anything new, really.

There is always the resistance of knowing you might look ridiculous.  There is always the resistance of knowing you might not catch on right away.  But just beyond that resistance lies every opportunity to learn something new, to try something different, to build your brave muscle, your fearless heart because, for better or worse, you did it.  You fought fear and tried.

I can’t get over the story in the book of Joshua of God parting the Jordan River for the Israelites.  God parted water twice.  You know that, right?  For some reason the Red Sea gets all of the attention, but the Jordan River is almost more stunning to me, because God was growing the Israelites’ brave. He was growing their faith in Him.

These Israelites knew God had done it once, but this time God did not pull back the water until they stepped in.  How awesome is that?

I wonder if they stood around for awhile on the banks of the river wondering if they were going to make  fools of themselves by stepping in.  I wonder if those priest carrying the ark and leading the pack had butterflies as they stepped into the river, which was at flood stage. However they felt, they stepped.  And it made all the difference.

Now, I’m not comparing line dancing to parting waters here.  But I believe that in order to live boldly and bravely, in order to grow a big and wild faith, in order to live whole-heartedly (as Brene’ Brown would term it) and not shrivel up under the weight of our own insecurities, we must condition ourselves to stepping in, to saying yes, to growing brave.

So after I after unloaded my line dancing theology, my son paused for a minute and said, “you know mom, I like that you don’t just write about being brave.  I like that you go out and do it too.”

And my heart melted just a tiny bit.  Not because I’m getting it right everyday, friends.  I mess this brave thing up all of the time.  Sometimes I step into the water kicking and screaming a bit. Okay, a lot.  Lots of kicking and screaming.  But my heart melted because this is becoming the language of my life.  It’s leaching out to the little people in my home and they see it for what it is.  They keep me honest because these growing kids can see right through me – right through my words, they see actions.

As adults we lie to ourselves quite easily.  We say things like “line dancing just really isn’t my thing” and we believe it.  So do our friends.  We give each other a free pass on being a chicken all too often.  Saying yes to line dancing doesn’t change the world, but learning to say yes and conquer fear just might, friends.  It just might.

So are you ready?  Line dancing opportunities don’t come up every day but brave opportunities are around every corner if your eyes are wide and ready.  And I want to help you get started becoming brave.

I’ve created a list of 100 Ways to Exercise Your Brave.  Some of these might be easy for you – those ones aren’t for you then.  But I guarantee there are some things on that list that will stretch you and grow you and scare you.  Do them. Make yourself say yes to some of them.

Grab your spouse or a friend.  Brave is contagious so hop on board together and let your courage inspire and motivate each other to start a conversation that matters and grow your brave!

Be the friend that coaxes someone else onto the dance floor.

Simply enter your email address at the form in the sidebar and download the 100 ideas to get you started.  If you have a friend that would love this use the share buttons below so they can sign up and get started becoming brave as well.

I can only imagine how our lives, our world might be changed, if we all decided to live just a little braver.  

 

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