I feel the Lord talking to me about risks lately. One of the very best lines in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is when the Beaver speaks about Aslan,
“Safe? Who said anything about being safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
I felt God talking to me about the health of living each day with an element of risk in one way or another. Much like how our body responds when we start to work out on a regular basis, we are able to handle more and more as our body gets used to working out.I felt Him telling me the same about being able to take the big risks. Not just any risks. The ones God is asking you to do, the ones that make no sense when you look at them with your logical brain, but for some reason they bring you peace when you think of them.It hits your soul and burns because it's as if you reached the bullseye of God’s heart and desire.
Allowing Him to save and not have a plan B is something that I am learning to do. The risks that bring us closer to Him to trust Him with every step, wondering if our own strength will get us there. Of course it won’t. That is the risk. We need Him. We were meant to need Him. We were meant to take risks with Him. That is the risk that is worth taking.
At the same time he has been speaking to me about risks, it coincided with some bible and history lessons that my children and I were discussing. In the bible we were studying Moses, discussing his apprehension to do what God is calling Him to do because of his own personal feelings of inadequacy, but still following through anyway. Then on the other hand, we had studied Harriet Tubman as the “Moses” of the underground railroad during the times of slavery leading up to the Civil War. She constantly risked her life for others to experience freedom because God told her to do it. These are two different examples of risks that God was asking them to take and they both were leading others to freedom.
So if we take a little risk everyday, the big mountains of risk won’t seem so impossible. On the other hand, living a life without risk makes every risk seem like a mountain.
Living a life with risk provides space for the awe and wonder of what God can do in our own lives. Risks lead to more faith for ourselves and other people.
So why are risks so hard? It can seem that sometimes the longer you live, the harder risks are to take. My daughter has this goal to jump off the high dive. She has tried a few times and has gotten really close but as soon as she looks down, she says, nope! And climbs back down.
Perhaps we need to not walk away from the suffering so quickly. Work through the fear instead of making it the obstacle. Keeping our attention on the goal of freedom on the other side of the risk.
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
-Matthew 16:25-
I like the Message version of this verse.
“Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.”
-Matthew 16:25 MSG-
Living life with risks leads to a kind of freedom that you can’t experience any other way. It is letting go of controlling outcomes (possibly letting go of the life that you thought you would have) and truly believing that the Lord has the very best plan for you and it is worth the journey.
It may not always make sense. It may not feel safe, but it is good. He is the King, I tell you.;)
