Bump.

It's good for us to Stretch ourselves.  Not just with exercise, but at work, and really everything we do.  I think God wants us to find out what we can do well; to challenge ourselves.  I can't tell you the number of times I didn't do something because I let fear win.  Over and over; time after time.

I love the music of Gordon Lightfoot and when I was much younger, I kind of fancied myself as a Gordon Lightfoot wannabe (no American Idol in those days). I had the 12-string guitar and everything. I wrote songs, made an album which I never released, and had a good time doing it.

At one time, I even had an agent (questionable as much as he was) but he did manage to get me a "gig." I said "Sure," when he asked if I would do it.  It was in a little night club that held probably 200 people, if that many, most of them would be properly pickled by the time I would go on. I gave myself just enough time to think about how I would probably forget the words and mess it up. So, I called the sort-of-agent back and told him No. Unfortunately, he had already told the club owner I would do it, so now, he has to call him back and tell him I decided not to do it. He (the agent) wasn't happy. And I guess the club owner wasn't happy either. Now, a good thirty years later, I'm not happy about it. I should have done it. I loved music, particularly folk music. I was a pretty good singer, a nice Lightfoot like voice, and had some good songs that I had written myself. But no, fear kept me from doing something I would have loved to do.

Things have a way of "sticking." And I can trace the club episode to my earliest days in grade school. It doesn't take too many times for a teacher to tell a six-year-old that they are stupid and "can't do anything," before the kid starts believing it. Low and behold, twenty years, thirty, forty, fifty years later, the kid still believes he is stupid. This thinking has stopped me dead in my tracks so many times I can't tell you. It has just been in the past few years that I have realized how much has been taken from me by the words of a heartless teacher. I always promised myself that if I ever had kids, I would spend most of the time telling them how great they are. Things you say to kids matter. I'm evidence of that.

So now, I try to do something that scares me a little. It's was I call "Bumping." Try to do something every now and then that challenges you, or "bumps" you to a higher level. Joel Osteen speaks about "coming up higher" frequently in his talks. After reading his books and hearing him speak, I realized I could be so much more. Come Up Higher. 

So, at a new job I have started, I have offered to do the radio traffic reports while the regular reporter goes on vacation. Now this is for the top rated radio station in town with massive credibility. There are several reports per hour on the station, two per hour on a local TV station and four additional radio stations in the chain. It is absolutely frantic. The second I finish on the TV station, I go to the radio station. There are just seconds in between. The prospects of this scared the bleep out of me and I even expressed my concerns to my supervisor. I wanted to bail. Just like I have done forever. By the time I get to my car, I realized what I had done: I let fear drive me again. When I got home, I called him right away and told him to keep me scheduled to do the fill-in work. Come Up Higher. Bump. Bump. Bump.

I did the reports this morning, and yes, it was the most frantic experience of my career. But it was also a "Wow" experience. Sure, I had some rough spots, but it let me know I need to raise my game, to step up, come up higher.... Bump!

God wants us to find out what we can do. To grow. To learn. You will never hit a home run till you step up to the plate, in front of thousands of people, you could strike out, you could look silly and like a disaster, you could fail, they could shake their heads at you, you could feel horrible about your failure, people will look at you.... but THEY won't step up to the plate. You did.

You Stepped Up!  Bump!