Crossing a One Way Street

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Have you ever J-walked on a 1-way street? Traffic only comes from 1 way on a 1-way street. We know this. We know it in our brain. We are pretty sure that cars won’t come the other direction – but what do we do?

We still look both ways.

We look both ways because we are conditioned to do so. It is virtually impossible for cars to be coming from the other side, but we don’t trust it. We still fear that cars may approach us from both sides, even though we know it is a 1-way street! Downtown Los Angeles is full of these 1-way streets – so is Old Town Pasadena. Every time I make a turn or cross the street, I try to compensate for oncoming traffic that doesn’t exist. I catch myself each time and shake my head in disgust of unnecessary fear.

What does it mean for us to be so overcautious when trying to get to the other side? Is there such a thing as being too cautious? In this unstable world, we do everything we can to be stable. We hedge all our bets and make cutely packaged plans. This is a good thing, no matter how condescending I am when speaking of it. However, there is something about being cautious that makes you shrink when you have no business shrinking. There is something about being careful that keeps you desperately pathetic on the sideline. It’s hard to go from being bold as a lion to being tamed as a mouse. It doesn’t matter how confident or faithful you are – you will go through times of extreme anxiety, desperate uncertainty, and nights of tearful terror and sorrow.

One way traffic is great. It allows you to know what side to take on. It helps narrow down your challenge. You don’t have to fight opposing traffic – just one way. God gives you opportunities in your life where he narrows down your fight. Most of your life will be fighting in all directions – but sometimes, you get to fight one thing. When the scope of your battle narrows, so must your approach. You can’t fight one directional traffic with a multi-dimensional strategy. You have to fight it dead on. Usually, when you get this one-way challenge, it means you must use all your resources towards this one thing – a general fight will not secure victory. This specificity takes so much trust, because you never know if you are losing on other fronts – you never fully know if a car may break the rules and run you over from the other side. The field is never quite fair, but you do not have time to fight preemptively.

My fight is currently narrow – but it is the fight that will either catapult me to greatness, or kill me. Quite frankly, I cannot take a medium ground. I would rather die than not accomplish my mission. How about you? Would you rather take average safety than a glorious legacy? Do you want to be great? How bad do you want it? What will you sacrifice for living optimally? The saga continues — Be brave.

Much love to you – Jeevo

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