Stepping into the Unknown: The Journey to the Faith Zone

The question of the ages…
The question of entrepreneurs,
Aspiring artists,
Of those who sit on the edge thinking about taking the dive into the unknown,
Of those who have dreams that lie a soft skip outside of their comfort zone (as many great dreams tend to do):

“Do I take the jump?”
I sit here with my tea and comfort all around me,
The only thing that disturbs me is that thought in my mind,
That thought of “What if?”

What if I could do that thing the whisper in my heart has always pulled me towards?
What if…?
What if I start that non-profit?
What if I take that certification in holistic wellness and support people I love towards living healthier lifestyles?

What if I am not destined to be a programmer, but rather to use those skills to develop a new program for teaching children to learn mathematics…?

What if…?

This “what if” is usually followed by,
”And what happens if…”
What happens if I fail?
What happens if I fall flat on my face?
What happens if it was all a mistake and I…I lose everything…?

And here we sit,
On the edge of diving into the unknown,
Sitting on the sidelines with our potential.

This is what we call the “faith zone.”
The place where we can dive into the unknown.
We can test God.
We can see if there is something out there that supports us,
Or we can stay paralyzed on the thin razor edge of possibility.

We can hold ourselves there in a paralysis
That guides us gently home,
To our inevitable end,
Where we sit down, old and gray, and think that same haunting question that has been sitting on our heart
For decades.

The ol’ “What if?”
“What if I had just…”

It is here we can sit,
Eternally,
And forever.

But the place I want to bring us is the faith zone.
The place where we find God.
The place where we can test and trial, truly and boldly,
The support and the essence of Spirit.
And this is where we must go.

I remember when I was in Australia,
Living in a Hare Krishna community,
I met a special resident.
A bright, blue-eyed man with a bald head,
A devotee, if you will.

He had a calm demeanor and I wanted to learn of him.
I approached him and we began speaking.

He told me a story,
A story of his experience with “testing God.”
He told me that twice in his life,
He had allowed himself to purposefully run out of money,
Just see what would happen,
Just to see what God would do,
And if God would show up.

When he first experimented,
He lived in a van, embracing the nomad life.
He bought himself a nice dinner that evening,
Spending his final 50 cents.

With nothing left to do, he parked his van and went to sleep.
The next morning, he awoke to a knock on his window.
He woke suddenly and saw a man standing outside.

When he rolled down the window,
The man told him there was a market happening that morning,
And that he needed to move his van.

The young Hare Krishna man said, “Ok! Do you guys need help with anything?”

”Sure!”

So he moved the van and began helping.
He was fed during the market, and afterwards, the guy he helped gave him $50.

As he was walking to the store to grab himself some food, he found a $100 bill
laying on the ground in front of him.
He wasn’t out of money anymore…

God showed up.

Welcome to the faith zone.
This is where we must go.

This is the place that life calls us to.
Are we going to sit back,
Or are we going to test God,
Show our faith,
And dive into our full potential?
This is where we must go.

Life goes on and the decisions become more challenging.
Eventually, it becomes not just about us,
But about family to support, kids, responsibilities,
And the decisions grow loftier, weightier, and what do we do?

Do we step into the faith zone?
Do we step into the unknown?
Do we trust fall into the universe and see what happens?
This is where we must go.

It is here where I’ve found my greatest evidence of God.
It is here where I’ve found that life, God, the Universe, inevitably rises up to support me.
I ask the question –

Does God want me to lose everything and go back to having to work some sales job to make ends meet?

Or will God support me as I take the path that will ultimately lead me to my life purpose?
The path that will lead me to that place in my heart where the flutters are,
That place in my heart where infinite potential lies,

That place in my heart where that dream I always knew I was destined for hides…
Will God support me to that place?
And this is where I must go.