Choosing to Live on the Edge

The year 2025 has come to an end and we have now stepped into a new one. There are all kinds of things to wonder about: what will be different in 2026? What will be the same? What new hope will this year offer? What old dread will materialize? What things in my life can I change and improve? What old patterns are going to repeat themselves and increase those feelings of being trapped?

We stand at that place where one thing ends and another begins. The smaller questions all center around the one big one: will things be better or worse in the unknown future?

Of course, we simply do not know.

Meaningful Change

But, standing at the edge of one year as it ends and another as it begins offers opportunities that we let slip away at our own peril. “Edges” (endings and beginnings) fill every season of our existence and invite us to stop and evaluate where we’ve come from, where we’re at, and where we’re going if we will simply allow ourselves to see them. Meaningful change requires an edge.

They remind us that life is made up of seasons. And no season lasts forever. I can endure a cold winter for a while and maybe even enjoy aspects of it. But I am always relieved to see signs of spring and summer coming on. Yet as the heat and humidity increase, I begin to think about and ache a bit for those chilly autumn days of sweaters and hot chocolate. Life does not stay the same, which is the foundation of many people’s hope (the way things are right now is not how they will remain). But the inevitability of change is also the root of many people’s fears (what if those terrible things in my imagination actually come true and what is good is taken away?).

Re-thinking What’s Most Important

Edges, as opposed to unending sameness, jars me into moments of re-evaluation of my life. I recently attended the funeral of a friend. It pushed me to think, once more, about what is truly valuable and ask this question: am I choosing every day to live for what is most precious and lasting? At the same time, my son and his wife have just given birth. This momentous edge stirs my imagination, hopes, and prayers for the new potential of beauty and joy that has just come into the world in the form of a little girl of whose life I want to be a part. How will I choose to do that?

Ultimately, edges make room for God. The illusion of tedious predictability, unending sameness gives the impression that our world is a closed system, that we know everything that can happen. We think we can somehow maintain control with enough will power, or on the other hand that we are helpless victims of circumstances and cannot change anything. Yet abrupt endings of old patterns and the sudden beginnings of new, untried paths have the ability to remind us that there is an “out there” which is unknown and untrod. I have committed my life to the belief that my God, my Savior, my Heavenly Father is with me but also beyond the edge, “out there” calling me to Himself. That’s where my hope lies.

The Place Where I Have to Trust

Yet, no matter what good I believe is out there beyond my ability to see, edges are still scary – like being on a cliff with a gale wind blowing at my back. Yet edges can also be exciting – like wondering what’s going to happen in the next chapter or season of the story. God can provide the meaning for the edge I’m on, be it terrifying or full of hopeful pleasure. For He is the One on the other side. He’s already “out there” and wants to give you the “why” to your life, the reason to push through past the fears and the dread. The only thing that’s really up to you is whether or not you’re going to trust Him, that He cares for you as you dangle on the precipice.

It’s a New Year! Take time to thank Him for all that you were given in the old one. Confess your failures and declare your readiness to rely on Him, His goodness, and His unfailing love for all the unclear, unknowns in the one before you. Gratitude, repentance, and trust are the most reliable spiritual tools for successfully navigating the transition from one edge to another.

The edge is where meaningful change takes place. Don’t let it slip by.

Response:

• What am I looking forward to and hoping for in this New Year?
• What am I dreading or expecting to not change in the coming year?
• How would it change the way I see and navigate the future if I took the understanding that God is both with me as well as  “out there” calling me to come to Him?
• What fears or doubts do I need to surrender to God?
• Jesus, hold me as I stand on the edge.