Every day we wake up, we risk something. We step in the tub with the shower water on, assuming that the water system is working correctly and the water coming through the showerhead is not contaminated with waste. We assume that the bath mat or the strips on the floor of the tub will provide enough traction for us not to slip and fall and injure ourselves.
We take a risk upon opening up the tube of toothpaste, not knowing whether or not the company may have put too much of one or another chemical in there which could cause or severe problems as has been the case with toothpaste from other countries where some of the chemicals are 4-10 times their normal strength in the U.S. to compensate for the non-flouridated water they have.
We risk on the highway on our way to work daily. I work in public schools, and I know firsthand I risk even disciplining children in the halls who could or could not be carrying weapons on them. We’ve caught kids on campus with bb guns before and a well shot BB gun can cause death just as much as a real gun can. A pocket swiss army knife only costs a dollar, but has a blade sharp enough to take a life. Some kids have these too. And with the generation of ‘if you love me, you’ll make much of me’ emotionally unstable children that grace the doors of my building daily, any type of criticism is almost always taken at first with explosive anger.
Think of your workplace. Daily, you deal with people – adults – who may be just as volatile as some of the middle schoolers I teach…. even moreso, because unlike most children, they have the capacity to take human life and cause great injury when they feel wronged or slighted.
Oh yes, we risk. We risk daily. Mostly unseen and probably just as dangerous as the things we choose to try and avoid for the sake of keeping ourselves alive and around. To a degree, the thought of ‘safety’ is really a myth. There are really only varying degrees of risk all around us.
Sure, my apartment was broken into back in February. So I changed my locks. But anyone who’s determined enough can get in. I can come home late one evening to an empty apartment and have to rebuild most of my life from scratch. Or one of my neighbors can forget something on the stove or fall asleep with a cigarette and I come home to a charred husk of an apartment.
A while back on I-495, a man shot at another man with a crossbow. The same incident happened in Little Rock, AK last year.
A crossbow.
On the highway.
We often take risks for things which only benefit us. Too often. But things which could benefit others, we shy away from or feign excuses.
Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego weren’t like that. They took the huge risk of obedience and even told Nebuchadnezar that though they were confident that God could rescue them from the fire, even if He didn’t, they wouldn’t bow down.
God-glorifying risk for all the right reasons.
John the Baptist stood for righteousness and told Herod it was not right for him to have his brother’s sister, Herodias. John lost his head over it (he was beheaded at the urging of Herodias herself).
God-glorifying risk for all the right reasons.
Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.” (1 Chronicles 19:13).
Of late, I’ve taken a lot of risks. I’ve garnered a lot of success in some of them…others not so much.
As a firm believer in the Sovereignty of God in all circumstances, there comes a point where that theology gets tested….time and time again when hearts break, cars break, laptop LCDs break ($327 to replace…. but did it myself thanks to powerbookmedic.com), houses burn down, wives are killed in car accidents, husbands die from a freak accident and so on.
The basis of any and all comfort in the face of a failing risk that we took lies here in the Sovereignty of God. A while back, I detailed this a bit in my God is For You post. My own words come back and bite me now and again.
But that’s good. They provide the basis for any and all real RISK and any assurance that even when we do fail at something, it is for our greatest good and God’s highest glory.
So take risks for the sake of the kingdom of God. Take risks for the sake of the glory of God in your life, so that it may be magnified to others. Leave the false sense of American security and prosperity behind…..and live godly. Truly godly.
Trusting That God is God,
K. Joel Gilliard
