Willingness to Explore

In life, we can settle for the world we are born into, or we can take risks and explore new 'places.'  If we believe that God will help us and ultimately save us if we go 'too far,' then we can make the choice to go out beyond the 'established borders.'

Spirituality requires us to be explorers, to move beyond what we know into places that we do not know.  Of course, most of this journey is within ourselves.

I liken this to the old story about the Irishman who was asked if he knew how to play the violin.  He responded, "I don't know, I haven't tried to yet."

We will not know our limitations until we push out to them.

Humanity has a great deal of unrealized potential.  Each of us has vast acreage of inner space that we have not seen.  We must go deeper by trying new things.

Now, there is always a caveat: don't try doing something that everyone fails at.  For example, it is probably a bad idea to join a commune with the idea of staying for life, because it is a demonstrable fact that communes break apart within a few years.

An explorer, before he explores, tries to learn as much as possible about the world he knows before he goes out into the world that he does not.  He then paces himself, and all along checks and double-checks his decisions.  He remains flexible and willingly change his pre-conceived notions based on what he finds along the way.  While his venture is risky overall, he takes few risks as best he can.  

Ultimately, the explorer returns to tell others about his adventures and help others to make their own journeys.  The explorer never really ventures only for himself.  To do so would only make him an 'exile.'

Be wise, and explore.