Taking Chances

I have found over the years that there are many ways I get the gospel wrong. Really wrong. Probably one of the most commons errors I find in my thinking is that this gospel is about me, that its focus is me and my comfort. The closer I read the Bible and the more I think about these things, the more I come to this radical conclusion...God is not concerned with my comfort. He did not die on the Cross to make me feel better about myself or so that He could promise me a better way of life. Jesus died for God's glory, not mine.

When I clear my mind and learn to live in light of this reality (and it is no easy task) I learn that life is not about being safe and cautious. It's about living dangerously on behalf of God. Let me put it to you this way: if what we do in our lives has no possibility of failure, it has no basis in faith.

I recently had a conversation about this with a young man I know. This guy is a solid as you could find. He is dependable, mature, full of integrity. He has just come to the conclusion his life is too safe--that very little about who he is or what he does requires God's presence to get it done. Over the years I have had numerous conversations with older Christ followers who echoed His thoughts. They will tell you of their previous journey of faith--church attendance, honest living, dependable lifestyle--you know the spiel. Then their eyes begin to twinkle and there is a new sense of enthusiasm as they talk about living "recklessly" in the hands of God. Launching new careers, moving to new locales, walking away from everything in their life that gave them "security" and embracing full dependence on God.

I'm there again. I'm at that place where I don't want to get to the end of my life and finish safely. I don't want 50 people gathered at my grave site some day...way off in the future...looking at each other with tears in their eyes saying, "Ridley was safe. He caused few ripples, left few marks of his own." NO! I'd rather them stand in a worship center celebrating somewhere, laughing at some of the foolish things I attempted for the Kingdom. I want to know that I left the biggest dent in the world (even if the dent comes from running headlong into walls that the world said couldn't be moved). I think the greatest disaster for the Church today would be for Jesus to come and find that we spent more time worshipping our comfort than we did living out our faith.