Richard W Black
Richard W Black is a freelance writer.
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Life on the Edge

11/24/2014

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A couple of good things have happened to us this week and I have been reminded that Barbara and I are living on the edge of life.  That is, we are continuing to take the path less traveled, the risky road of the adventurers; it may not be safe but it is exciting.  Anyway, in the last few days I sold the first print rights to a short story and optioned a television series.  I cannot talk details about either yet and there is still a lot of work and everything takes a lot more time to materialize then I would like but you celebrate the positives when they come.  We have other potential projects just hanging out there, any one of which could pop at any moment.
 
For personal reasons, I was reminded of Moses.  He was a man who had three distinct phases in his life; a life on the edge.  First, he grew up in the palace of the Pharaoh of Egypt among the luxury and lifestyle of the wealthy and powerful.  Then he was forced into the desert where he took up the career of a shepherd and the life of a husband and father, quite the comedown from his previous life.  Finally, and not by choice, he became the leader of one persnickety people as they wondered the wilderness learning how to be God’s people.  Who can blame him for losing it a time or two?
 
I admire people who take risks, move out of their comfort zones and grab life.  A friend who has been an inspiration to me gave up a position many would think of as a dream job so that she could start her own business full of risks and uncertainty.  She had a dream and a passion and is now reaching for it at a time in her life when many would be coasting toward a more comfortable lifestyle.
 
Speaking to another friend last week, he told me about the journey he and his wife were on that took them several thousand miles and around the world only to end up where they are now, an hour from where we grew up together.  And still their journey is not over; they are really just on another stage of it.
 
Our daughter just returned from a mission trip to Africa.  She left the safety of her life and took the risk.  She saw and experienced things she could not have in the security of her home.
 
Barbara and I have talked before about the things we have done, the place we have gone and what we have seen in are journey together.  We have many regrets but one that we do not have and never will; we do not regret living on the edge.  We have dreamed, we have tried to keep God in our dreams and we have reached out for our dreams.

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Beware of Your Prayers

11/1/2014

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It was 31 years ago and we were in language school in the French Alps.  At night, I would slip into Miriam-Danielle’s bedroom and pray for my daughter.  My prayer was that God would bless her life and use her to do great things.  I have learned one lesson in life; beware of your prayers, God might just answer them.
 
Today, Miriam-Danielle steps onto an airplane and puts her feet where her faith is.  As part of a short-term mission team to Mozambique in Africa, she will be using her talents as a photographer to document the trip.
 
It is easy to spout every type of belief so long as others do the lifting or others pay the price.  It is even easier to blame the wrongs of the world on others.  Those other people, if only they would be willing to sacrifice more or do more than the world would be a better place.  It is always someone else’s responsibility to change the world.  The reasoning is that those other people have more to give so they have to be compelled to give it, by force if necessary.
 
The reality is that the world was never changed for good by forcing others into action.  The world was never changed for good by making other people sacrifice for the common wellbeing of humanity.  The world is changed by people freely willing to do what they can to make a better world.
 
Miriam-Danielle has learned this principle.  My daughter loves and serves those around her, doing small things where she can, and now she is reaching out to the larger world.  That is really the way it works.  First a person sacrifices for their friends and neighbors, they give to those in need.  Then they begin to reach out to others further away, they cannot help themselves.  Serving is contagious, it does not have to be compelled or coerced.
 
So be careful how you pray, you just might change the world.  I know I did, starting 31 years ago in the darkness of a bedroom kneeling beside a crib.

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    "To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'"  John 8:31-32

    "Context is everything in life."  Richard W Black

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