I feel like I’m on a roll. It’s Friday and I’m working on my Five Minute Friday contribution. Okay, it’s late Friday … but it’s still Friday!

The exercise involves spending five minutes writing on a specific prompt word and then — the good part — linking up at Kate’s place (http://katemotaung.com/2017/02/09/five-minute-friday-safe/), sharing our work and checking out our neighbors’ work. That’s the fun part, seeing how others reacted to the word of the week.

You can join us as well. It just takes a five minute commitment.

Anyway, this week’s word is SAFE. The timer has been set, so it’s time to GO …

We ll have our safe zone … our comfort zone. We build it ourselves. We’re comfortable there. But sometimes ….

We have to step out in faith. It’s happened to me. It’s happened to you.

I was always a very private pray-er. I wasn’t vocal . I wasn’t comfortable leading prayers. I was a follower. My wife, on the other hand, was very comfortable sharing her faith. If asked to spontaneously lead a prayer, she would just jump in.

And she challenged me. I remember it vividly. We were at a bible study and the host asked Karen to lead us in closing prayer. She looked at me, then him, and said, “I’d like Joe to lead us in prayer.”

What? Betrayal! But you know, the words came — not easily and not necessarily fluidly — but they came. And afterwards, I was still breathing. I had stepped waaay out of my safe comfort zone and survived. …STOP

… A few years later I was challenged to not just pray, but preach as an elder. That was waaay out of my safe comfort zone as well, but I did it — not as a preacher but as a storyteller who shared the gospel. You know what? I was still breathing. I had stepped waaay out of my safe comfort zone and survived.

Since then, I’ve been asked again and again and again to fill in on the slanted side of the pulpit. In fact, I am scheduled to preach — I really don’t like that word — at Dover-Foxcroft (ME) United Methodist Church. {Please lift me up in prayer that the words I say are pleasing to the Lord.} It’s a new congregation and my first time in front of them. But it’s not too far out of my safe comfort zone anymore.

Over the years, I’ve been blogging, mostly about my faith and my experiences. Over the past few years, I’ve posted well over 600 entries and have made numerous connections with friends I’ve never met {many right here in the Five Minute Friday community}. If you asked me five years ago if I would be sharing my life stories with strangers, I would have resoundingly said, “No way!”  As a natural introvert, that’s not necessarily in my safe comfort zone.

I also share words of encouragement to my friends, family and prayer partners at least weekly and visual thoughts that catch my eye daily on Facebook. I’d like to think my small contributions help share the gospel. My circle has come to expect these nuggets and I have been amazed at the ripple effect.

None of that was in my safe comfort zone.

You, too, can do little things outside your safe comfort zone. The lesson I learned — starting with that first challenge from my wife — was it isn’t enough to live your faith … you have to share it because you never know who’s watching or listening.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: What I can do, I do with God’s help; what I cannot do I turn over to Him so He can work. This leaves me free to enjoy my life.