From my days in the financial services industry I find I think in terms of risk versus reward. Over time, the safest financial investments return the lowest return with the least volatility. Again, over time, measured risk historically has the highest return with greatest volatility and potential for loss. If it were not so, everyone would want an insured bank CD at 15% guaranteed rate and the economy would grind to a halt. I mean, why risk capital, effort, and attention to try and do something better or build something new...and we would all still be beating our rugs with brooms over the clothes lines.
But how does this work in our walk with God?
I know of folks whose life was so horrid, so out of control, so dangerous that when they came to faith they came with the same wild abandon with which they had pursued selfish, rage-filled, greedy lives that had proved so painful as to be impossible to sustain. They may have stood with a gun literally pressed to their temple before dropping to their knees with a glimmer of hope that God might have something else to offer. They may have lain on a hospital bed longing for death when something called them to turn their face to God and God led them back for a life of purpose and joy. For some of these folks the story is powerful and their contribution to their families, communities and even farther has star quality.
But for most of us it is a matter of considering that, although we grew up in a church, maybe there is something more than coffee between services and baking cookies for the homeless folks. For some who have never been in a church and it may be tentative steps of reading a Bible or attending a church as they think to learn more about God. It may be someone who was badly treated at a church or by someone whose "churchiness" was used as a club and they are very tentative as they begin to think it might be that the person who frightened them might not have gotten it right.
And for us it can be a long and unnecessarily tentative process where we risk considering a new way of viewing the church, a new way of thinking about God, a new way of seeking everything from healing for our broken hearts to purpose for our lives. It might be a retreat, a book who title is off-putting but a mature Christian has found valuable, an on-line Bible study or an outing with a local church to minister to homeless folks where they live. Often it is uncomfortable, even frightening. But it is also a blessing as we are nudged a but farther along in our trust of God in all things, at all times, in all places.
What will you risk today in order to know God better, serve God more faithfully, embrace God's Love Grace more fully?
But how does this work in our walk with God?
I know of folks whose life was so horrid, so out of control, so dangerous that when they came to faith they came with the same wild abandon with which they had pursued selfish, rage-filled, greedy lives that had proved so painful as to be impossible to sustain. They may have stood with a gun literally pressed to their temple before dropping to their knees with a glimmer of hope that God might have something else to offer. They may have lain on a hospital bed longing for death when something called them to turn their face to God and God led them back for a life of purpose and joy. For some of these folks the story is powerful and their contribution to their families, communities and even farther has star quality.
But for most of us it is a matter of considering that, although we grew up in a church, maybe there is something more than coffee between services and baking cookies for the homeless folks. For some who have never been in a church and it may be tentative steps of reading a Bible or attending a church as they think to learn more about God. It may be someone who was badly treated at a church or by someone whose "churchiness" was used as a club and they are very tentative as they begin to think it might be that the person who frightened them might not have gotten it right.
And for us it can be a long and unnecessarily tentative process where we risk considering a new way of viewing the church, a new way of thinking about God, a new way of seeking everything from healing for our broken hearts to purpose for our lives. It might be a retreat, a book who title is off-putting but a mature Christian has found valuable, an on-line Bible study or an outing with a local church to minister to homeless folks where they live. Often it is uncomfortable, even frightening. But it is also a blessing as we are nudged a but farther along in our trust of God in all things, at all times, in all places.
What will you risk today in order to know God better, serve God more faithfully, embrace God's Love Grace more fully?
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