Wide Awake: The Explorer.

Erwin McManus is the Cultural Architect and Lead Pastor of Mosaic Community Church, a church that is based in Los Angeles, CA. In addition to his speaking responsibilities, McManus has created a niche for himself as a talented author. his most recent book, Wide Awake, discusses the potential within us all to recognize our dreams and to summon up the courage to make them our realities.

When Pam and I were thinking about what 2009 might look like for the Touch A Life Foundation, phrases from Wide Awake continuously resurfaced in our minds. Pam compiled a list of encouraging and motivating quotations, using some of McManus's writing to serve as inspiration. This excerpt is one from the book that literally jumped off the page at me, causing me to catch my breath and realize the potential within myself, and the potential that is assuredly found in each and every one of you:

:: If you're going to create the life of your dreams, you have to once again choose to explore. You need to make it a life mandate to learn everything and anything you need to know to turn your dreams into reality. You have to start making yourself flexible and pliable again, because if you stop learning, you will stop growing and will never create a life beyond the one you have right now...

When you are called out by God, you have to take on a learning mode that recognizes that you are called by God to explore unknown territories and go to uncertain environments. To some of you, God is literally saying, You need to leave your country, your relatives, your house and go to a place you've never known if you are going to live the life of your dreams...

I wonder if some of you need to move to Tibet or maybe India or South America. Or maybe you need to find a way to deal with the issue of AIDS in Africa. Is it possible that to create the life of your dreams, you need to get up and leave what you know and relinquish the security of what you have in order to discover what you only see in your imagination? Remember, there is always a hero within you waiting to be awakened--that hero is the explorer. ::

You don't necessarily need to go abroad to explore or to solve all of the world's problems; you can do your exploring right in your own neighborhood. Undoubtedly, there are problems begging to be solved right down the street from your home, and quite possibly just inside your very own doorstep. I think the point is that we should all be willing to do whatever it takes to explore our surroundings (near or far) to effect change on our world. Allow yourself to be shaped in ways you never could have imagined.

Rachel

(Originally posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2009.)