yesterday, I spent all day with one of my closest friends. we share quite a lot in this life – from tears, to fears, to personalities, to senses of humor, to horribly wonderful tastes in movies…you get the idea. she’s great.
we set aside the day with intent: to make it the girliest day possible filled with fun girly things that we don’t get to do everyday. Of course this consisted of: getting my hair done, eating at Gloria’s (a staple in our friendship, really) getting pedicures, eating junk food, and watching a movie with incredibly unrealistic expectations of what we need to do to get a man…like: be crazy. choreograph one dance number. and say everything we’re thinking in that exact moment.
As we were driving to our final destination, jokingly we decided that night we were “throwing caution to the wind” to everything from our diets to our driving habits.
We eventually began to process together what this upcoming Monday will bring for me, and as I’ve been churning it over in my own mind ever since, I feel a bit like I’m throwing caution to the wind…which for me always means there is risk involved and where there is risk involved, there are consequences.
Take yesterday for example:
risk 1: spending an entire day out of my bed, away from my hot tea, my kleenex, my Vick’s VapoRub, and warmth. (Oh, yeah – I’ve been totally and completely sick the last 4 days. no big deal. I’m just about to leave the country for a year. that doesn’t make me nervous at all.)
consequence: having one of the most joy-filled days I have had in a long time.
risk 2: fancy salon. I don’t belong in one of those…like, ever. I wish that I could walk in and say the right things that will make me seem automatically hip and cool, but instead I walk in and say things like, “you’re probably gonna want to wash your hand…I’m totally sick.” after shaking the stylist’s hand.
consequence: I have healthy hair now and got a free cappuccino. (consequence for her: she’s totally sick now. guaranteed.)
risk 3: pedicures in -1983473 degree weather. (just kidding, it was like 30…) You can’t put your shoes on after that process, so you’re therefore forced to walk outside in that weather with cheap sandals.
consequence: my feet feel and look awesome.
risk 4: “the last supper.” somehow the mixture of lay’s potato chips, french onion dip, beef jerky, goldfish puffs, Oreos, sour patch kids and coke zero sounded awesome at the time. (I mean, it still sounds awesome. but even with rationing all of those to snack portions…something went terribly wrong)
consequence: you can imagine.
risk 5: I have yet to pack.
consequence: I’m a little nervous about the overwhelming thought that that brings…so, I’m going to continue to ignore it a little while longer and accept the consequence of: whatever happens, happens!
Monday begins risk 6 when I board that plane at 7:40am (well, I guess you could number that boarding time as risk 6 in hopes I wake up for that!) and then continues a whole long list of risks throughout this next year.
One thing that I know for certain is: with each risk that I take, the consequence is going to be Jesus.
With every moment of “throwing caution to the wind” I will be growing into Andrea, into the person that God has created me to be, into a child who is learning how to walk more in tune with their parent, into a being who is molding into what their creator desires.
So, in t-3 days I will throw caution to the wind and embark on the biggest (and hardest) risk of my life thus far and will face the consequence of returning looking more like Jesus. Unlike the “last supper,” I am a huge fan of this consequence.
