As a naturally curious and adventurous person, I often find myself taking risks. And by often I mean, quite often. In the past few years alone, risks have included quitting jobs (a handful) without another lined up, moving across the country, starting two businesses, opening a retail store with no money for opening said retail store, shutting down said retail store to move across the country, oh yeah… and moving across the country to LA with one suitcase and no next job lined up.

When I am in the thick of the consequences of my own actions, I sometimes find myself deep in regret. I question my own sanity too, I won't lie. But a funny thing starts to happen as I near the end of the consequences of these sporadic faith-filled choices that I had made in optimism and excitement. Towards the end I begin to reflect. I start to look around and it's often the people, experiences, and stories that come to mind. I seem to begin to forget the heartache, stress, and the sometimes backwards steps that I took because of the risk. Instead, I begin to see things like the fruit and change in me, the people I got to meet, and the way that I see the world differently.

There is a humility that is birthed from being willing to jump and fall flat on your face. There is a humility that comes from stepping into other people's worlds and experiencing empathy. There is a humility that comes from being a dollar (or a lot of dollars) short because you jumped without the provision. There is also a humility that comes from the heartbreak of failure, painful endings, homesickness, and grief over the things you have to let go of in order to step forward and take leaps.

While I mentioned a few practical risks, the last few years for me have also included relational risks, choosing to try again in certain areas of pain/failure, and the risk of forgiveness. These are actually often the scariest. Leaving a job or moving across the country is scary, but it pales in "scary-level" comparison to having very challenging conversations, walking out healing from deep traumas, choosing to try at love again, or forgiving those who have wounded you deeply.

In my experience, many risks, both practical and emotional, have left a lot of scuffs and bruises. A handful have left wounds much deeper as well. As I look back and think of these risks though, even knowing the consequences now, I would go back and choose risk again every time. I say this because I see the fruit. I see the fruit today of the choice I made to forgive years ago, even when it was hard and unfair. I see the fruit when I look back on "failed" relationships and think of the deep level of love I got to both receive and pour out. As a christian who tries my best to walk in the ways of Jesus, I truly believe that this is what He was trying to show us our human experience would and should be. There are countless scriptures about loving others, forgiving over and over again, and many examples of Jesus himself doing this.

When I look at the life of Jesus, I see a full life. It was marked by betrayal and love, grief and joy, pain and healing, hardships and blessings. I think that many of us want to avoid risk in life and in love because we only want the latter and not the former. The easy and not the hard. But that does not make for a full life. I had a thought the other week when I had the opportunity to encourage two friends. In both separate conversations, I encouraged them by sharing examples of how I had been in situations similar to the hard ones that they were going through, and that I had survived, healed, and been better from those situations. Both friends began crying as I encouraged and prayed. It hit me, as I began thinking of writing this article, that I wouldn't have been able to comfort them with the same authentic encouragement, had I not been through those things that they had been through. The bible tells us that God "comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others" (2 Corinthians 1:4).

This fall would have marked two years of having my retail store open. This fall was also when my lease on the store was set to expire, as well as the two-year contract I signed with a company I was working at. Had I chosen to stay in Ohio and finish out my retail store lease as well as my job contract, I am sure I would have had a smoother past year of life. I would have more money, less stress, and wouldn't have faced the discomfort of all of the hard changes this past year. But as I think of how full this past year was and how much I have grown and changed, I don't regret my choice one bit. This is saying a lot too, because it has truly been the most challenging year of my life. This past year feels like a whole life in itself though. I am so grateful that I chose the harder path, and especially all the more as I think of the relationships I have had here in LA and how those relationships have shaped me and made me look more like Jesus.

I could write on and on about how grateful I am for the experiences I have lived and how much I have learned from them, but this article would turn into a book. The bottom line is this: the world is so big and there is so much adventure out there waiting for us all. The road less traveled is the best one and the scuffs and scrapes will be worth it. Living a life of adventure broadens your world-view, deepens your capacity for empathy, and turns your life into the best story. You should go for it.