I was preparing for a recent staff meeting when I pulled out a sheet of values that have guided not only the way I have approached ministry through the years, but also the way I have tried to lead others to as well.
I was making my way through a bunch of alliterated and catchy phrases that I had collected through the years when I came across this one:
Playing it safe is risky.
I noticed the passage underneath it. Hebrews 11.
Have you read that chapter recently?
Did you rush through that question?
Think it might be a good idea to pull it up right now?
No really, go read it.
Here: Hebrews 11
Still didn't read it?
Let me give you a couple lines.
Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:32-38)
And that doesn't begin to share the rest of the chapter!
Throughout time, God's people have pleased him by expressing extraordinary faith through what the world considers to be risky action.
And it hit me, nearly every decision I've made for the last 18 months has been tagged with this one question: Is it safe?
I don't express that to say it's a bad question. It's not. But making decisions by what's safe in this world may very well be risky when living by faith for God's kingdom.
What about you?
Has a year plus of playing it safe become risky to your faith walk?
What's the last risk you took to follow Jesus more deeply, more closely than you have before?
It might just be time to take a faith risk.
After all, playing it safe is risky.
- Blake