What do you think of when you hear the expression “standing on the brink?”

Maybe you know that the definition of “brink” is either the extreme edge of land typically just before a steep incline or cliff or on the verge of something. Typically disaster.

I’ll bet you’re not reading this on the brink of a cliff…

Not literally anyway. But do you get the sense you’re on the verge or “brink” of disaster?

What’s the brink where you’re standing? Do you have a relationship about to crumble? Is there a financial crisis on the horizon? Have you made some choices that you know won’t end up well?

Whatever your “brink” is today…I hope you’ll stop and think about something first. You’re incredibly sophisticated and complex. In fact, you’re uniquely complex. The tiny cells that run and design your whole body are yours and yours alone. No one else in the whole, wide world has your DNA. No one else in the whole, wide world has your fingerprints. And no one else in the whole, wide world knows everything you know.

Don’t ever be convinced by people, groups, or governments that you’re simply part of the whole. If you find yourself “standing on the brink”, it should be to boldly go where only you can go. Don’t be a pawn to someone else’s ignorance. Be all that you were designed by God to be. And no one can expect more from you than that.

I’m pulling for you, and I’ll share a poem I wrote in my last year of high school (way back in the 20th century) about being who you are…

No One’s Pawn

Silky satin words in Latin
Are brought now to my mind.
Old arsenic can stop the tick
And cause my brain to bind.
A flowing thought is simply what
A person needs to think.
The answer’s clear, and yes we’er near.
We’re standing on the brink.
Disaster goes…to where, who knows?
Be thankful when it’s gone.
For those who see diversity…
Well, they are no one’s pawn.
I’m one of these down on their knees
And asking for a chance
To prove by words I’m not of herds
Of men unheard and gone…
I’m no one’s pawn.

© Copyright Tony Funderburk 1973

In Faith, Hope, and Love,