Live brave, not safe

So I'm not super into sports movies. Or Brad Pitt movies. But it just so happened that the other day I found myself watching a movie about baseball with Pitt as the main actor- Moneyball. And although it isn't my new favorite movie, there were some definite morals to be taken away from it. The line that really struck me was spoken to Pitt's character in relation to the idea of being the first one to try something new.

"The first one through the wall always gets bloody."

The guy who said this was making a connection between Pitt's character drafting baseball teams using math and numbers, which was a new idea for the time, and a fight. The first guy through the wall is going to get bloody, but he is also paving the way for people to come after him. Someone has to go first. That's just the way it is.

Someone has to go first for everything. And often God is calling us to be that person. To be the first to heal, the first to obey. We might be called to go first in our families or our circles of friends in living out who God created us to be. Going first is hard. It hurts. It's painful and lonely and sometimes feels hopeless. But going first is important. It paves the way for people to follow suit. It allows others to step out and do what they wouldn't have done, be who they wouldn't have been, if not for your going first.