Are you spending so much time avoiding risk that you’re failing to experience life at it’s best? I’m not talking about being stupid. Yes, it is prudent to wear your seat-belt when you drive. But, it’s tragic if you won’t drive more than 100 miles from home! It’s a good idea to floss your teeth and eat a balanced diet. It’s sad if you never allow yourself a piece of chocolate or a cheeseburger. Does every decision have to be driven by fear? I know people in their 50’s who won’t go out to dinner or take a vacation because they are afraid they won’t have enough money set aside for retirement. Some never let themselves fall in love because they are afraid of getting their heart broken. Others never have children because they are afraid their kids might turn out to be criminals. Each of these choices are ‘safe,’ but also limit the experience of a rich life.
If you choose to live as a totally committed follower of Jesus Christ, you will have to let go of the safety ropes! A life of faith involves a kind of risk. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1, NIV) Use your imagination as you read these words: "As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:18-20, NIV) “At once” these men responded. They did not question the compensation package. They did not talk it over with their advisers. They heard the Call, responded in faith, and ignored the cost.
Let’s be clear. Their decision opened up possibilities they could not have imagined, but it did not lead them into endless days of bliss. The faith choice did not exempt them from discouragement, from difficult moments, from struggle, or even from sorrow. In fact, every one of them found a life of much more danger than they would have known if they had remained with their fishing boats in Galilee! AND, they found life to the full, eternal life, living in the center of the will of God.
In the ‘faith chapter’ – Hebrews 11 - Moses is an example. We read that "By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. He chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. He valued suffering in the Messiah’s camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff." (Hebrews 11:24-27, The Message)
Fear is life’s worst motivator! Don’t let your decisions be formed by ‘what-if’ and ‘could be’ and ‘limiting exposure to risk!’ Listen for the call of God. Love with your whole heart. Get out of the house and do something creative today. Any attempt to live by faith includes the risk of failure. You might get it wrong if you try. You might go broke, fall on your face, and have to endure some ridicule. But, you will have really lived in the process.
There is an important footnote to all of this. I am not writing about selfishness or ‘just being yourself!’ Ignoring the cost of your actions to others, causing pain to your friends and/or family by your foolish desire to break all the rules or fulfill all your fantasies, is not at all what the fore-going words were intended to encourage. I am writing about a life of total submission! Yes, it is not unfettered Self that leads to the best life, but complete surrender to the mastery of Jesus Christ, letting Him lead. That choice is never safe, but always wise!
I want to leave you with this thought -
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the Unites States
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