Tuesday, March 23, 2010

More Thoughts About Bridges

Yesterday I wrote a few thoughts about bridges, since I seem to have developed a recent interest in them as photographic subjects. My previous post on bridges focused on some human parallels to bridges regarding our foundations being strong and rooted deeply.

Today, I want to discuss the fear factor of bridges. Recently, I took some pictures of California's tallest bridge, the Auburn-Foresthill Bridge. It stands 730 feet above the rocky riverbed below. It is not a terribly wide bridge, and can be a bit intimidating psychologically. In fact, a friend of mine commented on Facebook that she's never crossed it due to fear. If you're scared of heights, I can totally understand. 

How many of us are standing at a precipice? We've reached the edge of the land of Comfort, looking across to the other side, the land of Destiny. But there is a rather intimidating chasm between Comfort and Destiny. It is inevitable that as we travel, we will come to the edge of ourselves. We will come face to face with our limitations and previous experience. In order to further our personal development, we must be willing to cross that bridge designed to carry us across the impassable terrain.

It can be quite scary at times. The key is to focus not on our fears, but on our goal. Keep your eyes forward. It's a simple fact of human nature. Where your eyes are fixed, that's where you're going to go. If you get caught looking over the side, you're going to drift in that direction. 

Today, you're standing on the cliff of where you've always been, across to where you need to be. God has given you an insatiable appetite to grow and explore. Your fear of change must be overwhelmed by your refusal to remain the same. Fix your eyes on God. Fix your eyes on His promises. Fix your eyes on His word. Once you cross that bridge, you will never be the same!