What Is The Edge? Part 2

I learned about the edge from my dad. When I was young my dad worked for Baer Industries, a metal finishing shop. Mr. Baer hired my dad to run his shop because of my dad’s knowledge of the business. As the business grew under my dad’s leadership, Mr. Baer made him a partner giving him 10% of the business. Every Saturday he would take my brother Pat and I to do some cleaning. If you have ever been in a metal finishing shop you know how dirty it is. My dad left the safety of his position and went to the edge to start his own business. I can remember the day when we moved all these machines into this small building and Freer Industries was launched. Less than a year later my dad bought a building on Hoover Road between 7 & 8 Mile roads in Detroit. All through his life I watched my dad make moves in business that some would consider unsafe or risky but they always worked out. My dad did this consistently in expanding the business and in buying property, he didn’t worry, he just trusted the Lord. My dad was always grateful for every blessing he received, and he always helped others, both financially and by fixing or repairing something for them.

I have been blessed by many people I’ve had the privilege to know, who lived on the edge in some way. They are not perfect people but they are real. Their lives have not been ideal or pain free but just the opposite. And in spite of problems and setbacks they continue to live near the edge instead of the safety of the middle.

The edge does not mean you live a wreckless life or a purposeless life or a selfish life or a self-destructive one. That may fit the definition the world gives to people who live on the edge, but it has nothing to do with what I’m talking about. People who hurt themselves and others are not on any edge, they’ve fallen into a pit and are trapped by lies and self-deception.

There are certain aspects of my writing/teaching that have been toned down because if I were to follow every path my mind wants me to go down, I would offend everyone and there would be no point in writing because no one would be reading. My goal is to go along the edge, but avoid going over the cliff. Sometimes I know I go too far on certain subjects and have offended people, but at the same time it has registered with others who have felt the same way but never verbalized it. There are other times I felt I haven’t gone far enough. I know I have more sarcastic contempt for phoney religious people than I do for the real deal sinner. This area more than any other has gotten me in trouble with religious people, legalists, charismaniacs, prosperity psychobablers, well you get the idea, I’d better stop here.