[box type=”shadow”] Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.
–Omar N. Bradley

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It’s that time of year. A new year. A fresh calendar page.

An opportunity to embrace the unknown of the future…

Or cower in fear of what’s to come as it hides behind the veil of the unknown.

As I look at 2015, there are a couple things I know. I will teach at Purdue this spring. I will homeschool my children. I will earn my MBA in May.

Yet there are a host of unknowns. When will I write my next book? Who will it be for? What will the genre be? Will I do more legal work after I complete my MBA? Will I teach more or fewer classes?

I’m a person who loves a ten-year plan. Yet lately it feels like I’m being asked to run on a five-month plan. It’s okay. I’ve walked with God long enough to trust that He has things in my future. Things I may not be able to anticipate at this moment, but still I know there is a plan. And in the right time, He’ll let me in on the next step. After all isn’t that what faith is about? Trusting Him with the full journey of my life?

So as I prayed about the word I should focus on this year, the word He whispered to my heart through songs, through prayers, through life, was BRAVE. At first I tried to shrug the word off. I’m not exactly known as a shrinking violet or someone who isn’t willing to do counter-culture things (As one of the older homeschoolers when it became legal in Nebraska — that definitely led to a need for bravery!) Yet as I tried the word on and prayed about it, it feels right.

Like 2015 might be a year filled with new opportunities…opportunities that will be uncomfortable, scary, and call me to be brave all over again. To follow God into unknown territory in ways that I know I can only do with His help.

So here I type…with a wee bit of hesitancy…as I embrace the word. Brave. Here’s to a year where each of us gather our courage and follow God a bit deeper into who He’s called each of us to be…all for Him!

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