I remember as a kid always being told to look both ways before I crossed the street. It was something that was said over and over and it, over time, became ingrained in me…as it has in so many others.

It saved me.

But now, as you come to these cross roads, all too often, we are looking both ways. To our left, and to our right. We are searching for someone in parallel. We are looking to see what others around us are doing.

So, try not to look both ways. Look ahead.

The key to living authentically is to look ahead and look above.

Here is what you will hear from all that is above: look ahead, look above.

Be vulnerable.

We are all in this process of Life. There is no one - no one - who lives it perfectly. Wearing your journey on your sleeve, there is so much of God within the cracks of the story. That is where the message lies, not within a polished version.

Embrace the tension.

There will be a fight within you. There will be moments of uncertainty, and pain that follows any passion. But that is where you can find the growth. The old saying “no pain, no gain” is true. Living a life in “comfort” is limiting. It limits the work that God can do with your breaths on this earth.

Live out a will greater than your own,

All too often, I find myself living out the will of another person on earth. I look to my left, and to my right, and am drawn to a path that God has designed for them and not myself. In this, all I am doing is robbing God of my own life, my grace and my voice in this world.