Ryan Detzel
I aspire to be a safe person. I also aspire to be an unsafe person.
False-community is prevalent. We've all been let down in a time of need when we thought our friends/family/church/ were going to be there for us. People who you thought you could share your "stuff" with turned around and hurt you with that very "stuff". Someone you trust turns out to be someone not-so trustworthy and all of the sudden gossip is spreading like a cancer.
This is the area that I desire to be a safe person.
To be a person someone can spill their guts to without the risk of rejection, without the pain of judgment, without the chance of lost confidentiality. This is difficult because everyone wants to have the scoop on someone else. We all want to feel more important or as if we have a leg up on a subject over someone else. It's a part of our nature to want to gossip, whether it's in the form of a water-cooler discussion, or a prayer meeting.
Do you know how important it is for someone to have a solid rock friend in their life?
Not only is it important to BE that solid rock, but it's also a MUST to let them know. If people haven't trusted you with something, they have no idea if you're a safe person. I want to inform as many people as I can that if they need to talk, I'll be there...and I'll keep our conversation close to the vest. And I want to hold to that promise. In this, I shall be called safe.
On the other side of the coin, I am relinquishing my desire to be a safe person. In the context of complacency and mediocrity and the status quo...no thanks. I don't want to be like everyone else. I don't want to wake up in the morning, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to sleep, wake up to do it all over again. Should my biggest desire in life be to just get through it all with a half-smile hoping to maybe own a boat? Bah.
This is a tough thing as well. Everything in me wants a motorcycle, tattoos, adventure, and danger of all sorts - but society reminds me that I have a responsibility to stay safe. I have a family to look after and apparently you are not able to do that unless you're planted firmly on the sofa with a remote in your hand. Growing up you think you'll be an adult when you turn 18 years old, only to learn that everyone considers you a "kid" until you turn 30...or 40. Well, this kid isn't going to do it the way it's been done before.
Not me. I'm going after the prize and I'm not turning back. I'm going after radical authenticity to spread realness and transparency around me. I'm going after insane and unsafe grace towards those who don't seem to deserve it...because we've all blown it at some point and need a second chance...or a seventeenth. I'm going after a life that is unusually safe and ridiculously dangerous at the same time.
Who’s with me?
