A Song for When... You Want to Try Something New
If you’ve ever experienced a life season where you’re trying to break the mold and step out into the unknown, “Pioneer,” by Cory Asbury, is for you. I happened upon it and fell in love with the lyrics. They’ve even moved me to tears a time or two. Look at this first verse:
Miles and miles … On a treadmill mind … Running but not going anywhere … I closed the blinds … On the frontier life … I dressed it up as freedom but it’s fear … Lost sight of who I am and why I’m here
I can certainly relate. There are seasons of life, sometimes long seasons, where nothing seems to be happening. I might be dreaming of some specific life changes or advancements, but out of fear, I just keep doing what I’m doing. I close the blinds on a frontier life, and while I tell myself that playing it safe brings feelings of freedom, I’m actually staying in my comfort zone because I’m afraid of what might happen if I step out and fail. Have you had days, weeks, months or years like that?
This song paints such a vivid picture in my mind, especially when it comes to the chorus:
So free me from this fortress … This prison that I’ve made … With my civilized salvation … And my picket fence of faith … My eyes on the horizon … I cannot settle here … How could I die in safety … I was born a pioneer
When I sing these words, I picture a cute little house surrounded by a white picket fence—all in the midst of a stunning prairie, with the tall grass blowing softly in the breeze. It looks picturesque and beautiful! Safe and secure. But depending on the circumstance, it’s also a picture of settling. If I’m closed in by a beautiful but restrictive and controlling fence, I can’t pioneer! I can’t go out into the world and break new ground that God has prepared for me.
The Message version of the Bible offers a moving translation of 2 Corinthians 6:11-13. Paul is speaking, and he says to the believers in Corinth:
Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
Isn’t that the kind of faith and life you want? One that’s wide-open and spacious? I don’t want to live my life in a small way. That smallness comes from me and me alone, not from the God of the prairie. I desire to live openly and expansively! When I hear God speak to me, I want to have the courage to say yes. To step out, take a risk and trust Him enough to follow His voice into the unknown. Let’s resolve to do this together. Let’s take to heart the second verse of this song. It says:
Letting go … I leave it all behind … I’m parting ways with years of wasted time … I’m moving out … Of this old man’s house … Somewhere in me there’s the wonder of a child … And I wonder if I’ll find him in the wild
I’m changing man to woman, and him to her, and I’m making this my resolution for the year ahead. God, I’m moving out of my safe and secure life—with my civilized salvation and my white picket fence of faith. I’m moving out, and looking deep within because I know You’ve put in me the wonder of a child. I wonder if I’ll find her in the wild? Come with me, Lord! Take my hand through the prairie and along the path of a pioneer. I will not die in safety. I was born to pioneer!