“Holy daring.”  My wife tells me the novelist Gail Godwin uses the words in her book Unfinished Desires.  Godwin offers this description:

“When you let yourself be guided by divine improvisation which is being in service to a work larger than yourself and being of one heart with others who belong together with you in that work.”

What a great deal is packed in here, and what an inspiring vision of what most matters in life.  I realized this week that about every six years, a new chapter of “holy daring” somehow bursts forth in my life.  It is a scary journey, a movement from the known to the unknown — being “guided” because there is no map for uncharted territory.  The “larger than yourself” and “being of one heart” with companions who “belong together with you” make it so worth it, that plunge into the unknown.

About the Author: Chris Rice is co-director of the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School.  He is author of Reconciling All Things, Grace Matters, and More Than Equals. He writes regularly at the blog Reconcilers.

Last 5 posts on Reconcilers:

• Must-Read: “The Sacrifice of Africa”
• Application Live: 2011 Duke Summer Reconciliation Institute
• The Culture of Grace
• The Hidden Life of Seeking Peace
• “NGO’s Are Replacing God”