Wanna go out?
Not with me. You don't want to go out with me, and that's not what I'm asking. I'm married and pretty boring -- just ask my wife or any one of my six kids. But don't tell them I'm asking you out, because I'm not. Or rather, I am, but not with me.
The date I'm inviting you on is certainly more interesting, and it's one you already have planned whether you realize it or not. It's your date with destiny.
Every one of us has a date with destiny, and most of us have been standing her up for far too long. But destiny is a patient lover. She's used to waiting by the phone, taking selfies and posting them alluringly on her social networks, going to the movies solo, going home alone. She knows that we take a long time to get up the nerve to accept her invitation, hold her hand, abandon ourselves to her inevitable embrace.
I don't know precisely what your destiny is (or my own for that matter), but I know that is not to do tomorrow what you did today. It is not to be tomorrow what you've been until now. Not that there 's anything wrong with you today, but what is awaiting you is more. Not more things, but more you -- more of the you that you were destined to become.
This is why the date is called "going out," and this is what the invitation "do you wanna go out" refers to: Are you ready to leave where you were and go someplace new? Are you ready to transcend your former limitations, abandon the box that has constricted you, and go out and beyond?"
The invitation comes daily, but there are certain times when it is particularly fervid and we are provided especial incentive to accept. One of those times is the upcoming holiday of Passover, the celebration of the nascent Jewish nation's "going out" from Egypt. In a nutshell, God said "You wanna go out," the enslaved people said "I thought you'd never ask," and they proceeded through a split sea to the wedding canopy at Mt. Sinai. Now that's a date for the history books!
The anniversary of this date is not just a commemoration, it 's a reenactment. It is a reminder that we yet have further "out" to go, that the Egypt that enslaved us is not simply a historic or geographic locale, but rather a current and constant state of imprisonment from which we can and must break free. (It is no coincidence that the Hebrew word for Egypt, "Mitzrayim," is nearly identical to the word "Meytzarim,"limitation).
Every so often we get a text message from destiny saying "FYI, I'm still waiting. You can play hard to get as long as you like, but eventually you're going to GO OUT with me." And when we do, we're going to have the time of our lives and wonder why we didn't do this sooner. We're going to be rid of the fear, doubt, and/or complacency that kept us where we were until now, and we're going to want to go out every day. This is when life becomes truly romantic and miraculous, when we realize that there is so much more to us than what we believed possible, and when we take destiny by the hand and know that there is nothing that can hold us back.
Happy Passover. Leave me a comment if you wanna go out.