by John Wallis
I’ve been thinking about risk the past few weeks and how it is part of our lives and how we react to it with our choices. I see God taking a huge risk in his giving us free will. He created us with the intent that we can dismiss him whenever we want. At the time God created the universe he allowed us, his creation to reject him in total. He took another risk when Jesus Christ came to earth. Not in the whole salvation sequence but in the fact that Jesus came and left and put us in charge of building the church and the faith. It seems God has a high level of tolerance when it comes to risk taking. As you read the bible you find story after story of God taking risks in his interaction with us. So I started thinking about my life and how I am able to take risks. It has actually been easy for me to make a choice that seems risky and at times it has been frustrating when friends try to talk me out of a risky choice just because it doesn’t seem that the outcome is certain. Yet, when I think about how we create relationships in our lives it can not be done without risk. At some point if a relationship is going to have any depth you need to take some risks. You need to open yourself up to the other person. Open your self up in ways that expose your inner self to a level that the other person can crush you if they choose. I only have a few relationships where I have taken that risk of openness. The first is with Sydney my wife, she knows all there is to know about me. Next come a few close friends. I think about what those relationships have meant to me and how I needed those people having an intimate knowledge of whom and what I am to save me from destroying myself. So my question is how many of us are willing to take a risk the way God did and enter into a commitment to another in a way that allows them to have the ability to destroy us if they so choose. Are we willing to put our entire being on the line with another person to the point that all the therapy in the world couldn’t fix the damage they could do? God did it over and over again. Jesus did it over and over again. Maybe our controlled world of comfort has destroyed our ability to take any risk. Maybe our need to plan and ponder every step we take has allowed the bridge God built to rot into uselessness. Maybe our need to have the outcome known before we begin has quieted the Holy Spirit in our communities. Maybe that is why the church has lost its place in our culture. What if we have become so distant from the act of taking a risk that we have forgotten how to do it? Remember the first time you rode a bike and how scary it was when you thought about falling. Remember the hand of your mother or father on the seat and how that gave you the confidence you needed to fail. Remember how it felt when you turned around for the first time and rode full speed back toward your mom or dad with their arms in the air in excitement. Remember how God instilled a spirit inside each of you so you would never have to live a life of timidity but one of boldness and power. Remember when you allowed someone inside your soul for the first time and how they loved you with all they had. Remember when you realized for the first time that God gave everything he had for you so you could give it to others. That is what it means to take a risk. It means you take a chance that everything you give away might be rejected or mocked. But it also means that in that risking and giving you may save another persons life the way someone else saved yours. If we are to lay claim to the power that God plants in each of us we must start taking a few chances and stop worrying what the outcome will be. God gave us everything and all he asks in return is that we do the same so another might live.
John Wallis is a follower, husband, father, friend, architect and dreamer. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with Sydney and their 16 kids.
I’ve been thinking about risk the past few weeks and how it is part of our lives and how we react to it with our choices. I see God taking a huge risk in his giving us free will. He created us with the intent that we can dismiss him whenever we want. At the time God created the universe he allowed us, his creation to reject him in total. He took another risk when Jesus Christ came to earth. Not in the whole salvation sequence but in the fact that Jesus came and left and put us in charge of building the church and the faith. It seems God has a high level of tolerance when it comes to risk taking. As you read the bible you find story after story of God taking risks in his interaction with us. So I started thinking about my life and how I am able to take risks. It has actually been easy for me to make a choice that seems risky and at times it has been frustrating when friends try to talk me out of a risky choice just because it doesn’t seem that the outcome is certain. Yet, when I think about how we create relationships in our lives it can not be done without risk. At some point if a relationship is going to have any depth you need to take some risks. You need to open yourself up to the other person. Open your self up in ways that expose your inner self to a level that the other person can crush you if they choose. I only have a few relationships where I have taken that risk of openness. The first is with Sydney my wife, she knows all there is to know about me. Next come a few close friends. I think about what those relationships have meant to me and how I needed those people having an intimate knowledge of whom and what I am to save me from destroying myself. So my question is how many of us are willing to take a risk the way God did and enter into a commitment to another in a way that allows them to have the ability to destroy us if they so choose. Are we willing to put our entire being on the line with another person to the point that all the therapy in the world couldn’t fix the damage they could do? God did it over and over again. Jesus did it over and over again. Maybe our controlled world of comfort has destroyed our ability to take any risk. Maybe our need to plan and ponder every step we take has allowed the bridge God built to rot into uselessness. Maybe our need to have the outcome known before we begin has quieted the Holy Spirit in our communities. Maybe that is why the church has lost its place in our culture. What if we have become so distant from the act of taking a risk that we have forgotten how to do it? Remember the first time you rode a bike and how scary it was when you thought about falling. Remember the hand of your mother or father on the seat and how that gave you the confidence you needed to fail. Remember how it felt when you turned around for the first time and rode full speed back toward your mom or dad with their arms in the air in excitement. Remember how God instilled a spirit inside each of you so you would never have to live a life of timidity but one of boldness and power. Remember when you allowed someone inside your soul for the first time and how they loved you with all they had. Remember when you realized for the first time that God gave everything he had for you so you could give it to others. That is what it means to take a risk. It means you take a chance that everything you give away might be rejected or mocked. But it also means that in that risking and giving you may save another persons life the way someone else saved yours. If we are to lay claim to the power that God plants in each of us we must start taking a few chances and stop worrying what the outcome will be. God gave us everything and all he asks in return is that we do the same so another might live.
John Wallis is a follower, husband, father, friend, architect and dreamer. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with Sydney and their 16 kids.
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