Leaving my comfort zone.

When I was growing up, my dad took a lot of risks that many people wouldn't take. At the time, I thought it was because my dad knew everything he was doing was going to work, no chance of failure.  ( BTW, i shared that with him one day last year, and he started laughing so hard I thought he had temporarily lost his marbles.)  I never thought it had anything to do with being brave, or having faith. I just thought he.knew.everything.

He was a stock car driver when my mom met him and during the entire time they dated, until one day, when my mom was 6mths pregnant with me, and he got goaded into an illegal road race with my mom in the car. That's when things came to a grinding halt for the aspiring Richard Petty.  Thankfully, my mother had some sense or I probably wouldn't be here.

Sorry, bunny trail.  I do this a lot lately.  Ok, where was I?  Oh, the comfort zone and my dad.

Well, i guess he had to put some of that risk taking into other things. He became an engineer because he got bored building houses for my grandfather.  That job moved us to Metarie LA - where he promptly quit because he hated Louisiana - without another job waiting. ( He found one within a week btw). He moved us back to FL, where he bought a trucking company.  A trucking company?? He knew nothing about how to manage a fleet of trucks, independent drivers, and logistics.  Then he started buying rental houses.  Don't even get me started with his parlay into the stock market.

Some of these things didn't work out. Some of them did.  Some money was lost. Some money was made. Life went on.

My dad and I were talking once last year, during the period of time when we were seeing bank after bank close their doors and you couldn't turn on a television without seeing something about foreclosures and job loss, and i asked him how did my grandparents make it through the depression without dying of stress related strokes or heart attacks?? (they're still alive, in their late 90's).  He said in all seriousness, faith, of course. They never doubted that God would provide.  (I personally don't think faith had anything to do with that race car driving of his, more like stupidity, but i know it did with his business dealings later in life).

This post isn't really about my dad and his faith.  It's about mine. I think it's time to leave my comfort zone and have a little faith of my own.  I might have an opportunity that I need to act on.  And while this would have scared the daylights out of me last year, for some reason, it is not having that same affect on me now.  I'll share more in the next post about this journey.  Right now, I need to pray on 2 Corinthians 5:7.

We live by faith, not by sight.