Jan. 10, 2017

Loaded For Bear

“Loaded for Bear” is a loaded phrase. I used it in my 1/1/17 blog post “The Vision I can’t Unsee.” It needs a bit of unpacking.

While I’ve never encountered a bear up close and certainly don’t want to, I have had many outdoor experiences where the potential was present.

My love and appreciation for the outdoors stretches back to my childhood. I enjoyed being outside so much that I would take a ground cover and sleeping bag out to our backyard on many summer nights and sleep out under the stars. The fact that I would be sleeping outside as a young teenager merely had to be communicated to my parents; no need for permission. Forty-five years ago, we didn’t even lock our doors at night unless we happened to remember!
Alone, my 5’3” height would do zero to scare away a bear, brown or otherwise.

As an adult, sleeping out without a tent or something to keep the dew from blanketing my bag and face isn’t really my cup of tea. But I do love camping, hiking, and backpacking, IN GROUP! Alone, my 5’3” height would do zero to scare away a bear, brown or otherwise.

The sentiment underlying my choice of the term “loaded for bear” is expressed in a few of the other secondary definitions from The Free Dictionary and Wiktionary.

Have you ever wanted something so much and for so long it’s almost palpable? It takes on a life of its own. It can be visualized, while not yet seen. Do you agree that to live fully alive we must, at some point in our lifetime, create something that we truly believe in that will literally fail without God’s help? God-sized dreams require God-sized provision.
A God-sized dream can, by definition, be so large (even BEAR-size) that it can scare even the most courageous among us.

A God-sized dream can, by definition, be so large (even BEAR-size) that it can scare even the most courageous among us. When my vision began to expand from having receptions on our physical property to helping people all across the nation “build” their receptions, it seemed too big, too challenging.

There was so much to do . . .

Bank loan? Private investor(s)? Sell the Venue/Residence? Sell my other unrelated business of many years? Keep it all going? I’ve thoroughly considered and explored from every angle. For over three years! So many avenues. Some I’ve tried, but to no avail . . . yet.
I’ve discovered that if out on a limb is where He leads, it’s literally the safest place to be.

While we have completed our big list above and have launched the prelude we call Vibrant Space, the rest of the story is still unfolding. How we will fully fund the remaining, majority of the project still ahead of us, only God knows. I feel like I have followed Him out on the proverbial limb, and while I should be nervous and anxious about how and when it will all work out, I’m finally not. I’m at peace. Full of hope. I’ve discovered that if out on a limb is where He leads, it’s literally the safest place to be.

As the secondary definitions of “loaded for bear” depict, I am “ready and eager,” “equipped,” and “mentally prepared” to do my part in seeing matters shift in this year, 2017. And more significantly, I’m ready to believe and trust God for everything that is NOT my responsibility--parting the red sea, bringing down the walls of Jericho, turning water into wine--you know, miracles! The things that only He can do.

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Posted in: Our Adventures

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