Undaunted by Christine CaineSýnishorn

Life will always throw us curveballs. We will all be blindsided by challenges, failures, losses, hurts, betrayals—distractions of every kind—and each time, we will be free to choose whether to settle for a caged life or move into a free one. When I learned that I was adopted— abandoned by my birth mother at a hospital, given a number instead of a name, and then adopted by loving parents who kept this secret from me for thirty-three years—I could have succumbed to a caged life, letting the pain of my past lock me up and keep me confined forever. But I had a choice. I could let the shock of it all cause me to spiral downward into captivity mentally, emotionally, even physically, or I could walk in faith. I chose to put my trust in God and keep moving forward with undaunted faith, though at times it felt like more than I could bear. Moving through hurt or pain is never easy. 

Each time God showed me a place in my heart where I was caged in—whether it was because of something done to me or a consequence of my actions—I chose to break out and move forward. To move into his spacious life. To live the bigger life that he had planned. Whatever God had called me to do, I wanted to go for it. I wanted to help others. To lead them to Christ. I didn’t want to get stuck and forfeit my calling. But each time it took faith. 

• It took faith to understand my parents’ decision to keep my adoption a secret.
• It took faith to forgive the men who abused me. 
• It took faith to move through the sorrow of losing a baby and then have Sophia. 
• It took faith to deal with my fear of flying and cramped spaces. 

It took faith to keep moving into each new wide-open place God showed me, to keep daring to fulfill whatever he was calling me to do in the face of the pain, fears, challenges, and obstacles life kept throwing my way. And it will take that same kind of undaunted faith for you to move into your future. 

• Undaunted doesn’t mean it will be painless.
• Undaunted doesn’t mean you will never feel betrayed.
• Undaunted doesn’t mean you will never be fearful.
• Undaunted doesn’t mean you will never grow weary.
• Undaunted doesn’t mean you will never fail.
• Undaunted doesn’t mean you will never be disappointed.
• Undaunted doesn’t mean you will never be confused. 

Undaunted means that despite all these feelings, we trust, knowing that he who promised is faithful, that because greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world, we have the strength to walk by faith every step of every day (Hebrews 10:23). 

Whatever God has called us to do, no doubt, it will take faith. It takes faith to step out of our comfort zone when we do not feel ready. It takes faith to build a business unlike anything we’ve ever done before. It takes faith to finish school, go back to school, or launch a new career. It takes faith to move forward even while we still feel afraid. It takes faith to think of others and not just ourselves. It takes faith to rock the status quo. It takes faith to not settle for less than God’s best. 

It especially takes faith to deal with the issues that keep us caged and living a smaller life, the kind that hold us back from our future. The kind that pop up from our past, putting a damper on our present. The kind that work their way into our current narrative from unexpected experiences—losing a job, our marriage, or our home. The kind that silently stalk our thinking and shape our perspectives, lulling us into believing lies—that we aren’t good enough, that we can’t succeed, that we aren’t qualified, or that it’s too risky to move outside the zone where we feel safe and secure. 

To break out of our cages, to move forward, we must decide to start confronting the issues holding us back today. We cannot wait until the planets align, until all our circumstances are changed, or until we feel like it. We must move now. Act now. Go now. 

Adapted from Undaunted: Daring To Do All That God Calls You To Do by Christine Caine. Copyright © 2019 by Christine Caine. Reprinted with permission of Zondervan Publishing. All rights reserved.