The Dream Factory

The Risk

I posted this on our Church Newsletters Plus blog this morning.

However, when i read the printed version, I found all sorts of errors. I fixed them there and am reposting it here.

There are two roads to life. They have many expressions and characteristics, but I want to focus today on one dimension of choice: Playing it safe or risking everything.

Most people agree that “stupid risks,” those made in a stupor of pleasure seeking irrationality, are worthless and possibly evil. That is because they have no meaning, purpose, or long-term advantage.

Risking what is not yours to risk is likewise beyond any redemptive purpose. There is no honor is taking three drinks, getting in a car without buckling one’s seat belt, and driving 110 miles per hour down the road against oncoming traffic.

There are no monuments to men who caused multiple fatalities in 100 car pile-ups because they were brave enough to take a risk.

When Jesus says that we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him, He is calling us to live sacrificially, redemptively, and adventurously for a purpose.

That is why He so strongly utters these words in Matthew 16:24-26:

“ ²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

We can lose life by clinging to it.

William Barclay said, “The man who plays for safety loses life.”

There was a very cautious man

Who never laughed or played,’

He never risked, he never tried.

He never sang or prayed.

 

And when he one day passed away,

His insurance was denied.

For since he never really lived

They claimed he never died.

- Anonymous (quoted by John Maxwell)

 

Irrational clinging to what we think is life is as without merit as throwing it away needlessly and foolishly.

We fail to move forward and conquer what lies ahead.

Julius Caesar landed in England about 2000 years ago to conquer the Celts, numbering about a half million with 50,000 Roman warriors. His men were not fully committed and many would have retreated given the opportunity and overwhelming odds that lay ahead. So Julius Caesar burned the ships.

The Romans stayed, conquered, and established a long-term Roman presence and permanent influence in England.

In  1519, Cortez did the same thing off the coast of what is now Veracruz. Now, all of South America speaks Spanish.

In the book of Exodus, the children of Israel were tempted to return to slavery rather than face the hardships of the desert. 40 years later they entered the promised land and well over 3000 years later we have a nation called Israel, a people called Jews, and a heritage that brought our Savior into the world.

Jesus went before us and gave us the gift of assurance after His death that life can extend beyond the grave. Because He died and rose again and gave His disciples 40 days of constant contact to verify it, They bore witness to it and we have the biblical record today.

And we have the Holy Spirit within us.

Yet, following Jesus is risky.

John the Baptist was imprisoned in a dungeon, dark and cold. He had been the first to identify Jesus as the Lamb of God, but in that dank place, he doubted and sent word to that he needed reassurance. "Are you the One or do we look for another?"

Jesus met him in the darkness and reassured him.

Sometimes we cry out to God from dungeons of despair. As we wait for an answer, we keep on keeping on.

C.S. Lewis gave us a great gift in the fantasy land of Narnia with the Christ-figure, Aslan to point us to truth that even emerges in fiction.

In “The Silver Chair,” by C.S. Lewis, one of the characters says.”I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I am going to live like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

We have assurance and hope, but we still need faith and we must decide to exercise it and live by it.

We can win by losing.

That is Jesus’ message.

Whoever loses his life FOR HIM will find it. One might also say that losing one’s life IN Him means finding it … not just for now, but for eternity.

After ignoring a warning, Homer’s  hero, Odysseus and his men launch their ships on a voyage that is certain to end in doom. They had no experience with losing, but this day would be different as they crashed between some unmovable rocks in a harsh current. While his ship and all his men are being sucked into the sea by a whirlpool, Odysseus is somehow propelled upward and grabs hold of a fig tree on one of the crags nearby. He was washed ashore on the island of the enchanting Calypso, a strange and powerful woman who compelled him to remain as her lover for seven years before escaping.

Then, his journey continues … but first he had to be stripped bare of everything upon which he falsely depended. All he had left was who he was … his character.

Sometimes we have to shed our false dependencies.

Stalin is said to have taught his Communist operatives, during the Cold War, to think of themselves as dead men on furlough. As long as they thought of themselves that way, they would have nothing to lose.

Jesus teaches us to think of ourselves as men and women who cannot ultimately die and whose final outcome is victory, and who will see the His glory.

It is a pretty good trade-off.

So ...is it worth the risk?

 

 

 

 

 

To bear the cross of Christ is to do what He did - to bear the burdens of others.

Steps to Stepping Out

Getting ready to be ready is as important as getting ready.

Sometimes it is the best you can do.

There are 197 instances of the words, "prepare" and "preparation" in the NIV Bible including this reference to Yahweh's preparation:

"You prepare table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."  (Ps. 23:5)

Mark 14:12 offers us an insight into taking steps toward stepping out when the disciples ask, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

In this case, they were making preparations for a preparation. The Passover was one of the last steps in preparing Jesus for the cross and the finding a location for the meal was a preparation for that.

You will not arrive where you are going in a single leap. Whatever your goals may be, they will be reached systematically and patiently or not at all.

Step back to step forward and begin to take the steps that will lead toward stepping out.

Can a Man Write Offline?

Writers enjoy instant gratification on the internet. We expect feedback within minutes of posting an idea. Without it, we feel crippled and dis-empowered unlike our fathers who secluded themselves for years, wrote only to God, and never had any assurance that anyone else would read what they were writing.

I wonder if they hit dry spells in the desert.

If you are a writer and you don't write much for a while, you have to struggle with a certain measure of guilt mingled with fear. You feel you should be writing, that there are tens of people bereft of your wisdom and charming words.

The internet does not lend itself to seasons. It cries out for constancy.

On the other hand, despite all your advice to others to write something every day, you know that you have seasons in your life. You have times of intense productivity and times when something has to brew inside of you.

It is like one of our California rivers that rises and recedes with the flow of its water supply from the mountains.

Then comes the panic. Will I ever write again? Will I ever again be seized with a passion, desire, or creative urge?

Will I ever again have a creative idea?

Will I be forgotten? Will I lose all my readers who, as it is, cling by a thin thread?

Suddenly, we want to write whether or not we have something about which to write.

That season often arrives as a flash flood and often when ones life has been filled with things to do, places to go, and people to see. Life gets in the way of art.

... And we are far away from our computers hooked to the internet  ...

It raises an interesting question. Can a man write offline?

This Is the Day!

This is the day that the Lord hath made.

I will rejoice and be glad in it.

I love the reminder and reality that we can RE-joice as an act of volition. 

It is not a passive reception of an overwhelming emotion or state of external well-being. It is an available option. It is a choice. it is an act of faith. If this IS the day that the Lord hath made and I know it, believe it, affirm it, and receive it, I WILL rejoice and that is that.

There is no circumstance that can circumvent it.

There is no situation that can sabotage it.

There is no emotion that can demote it.

There is no margin that can marginalize it.

There is no stress that can stifle it.

There is no comment that can command it away.

It is the joy of the Lord and it is our strength. We choose to receive it and to exercise it - this day - the day that He has made.

I am not glad just in spite of it either. I am glad IN it.

Rejoice!

OK now, get on your feet and praise Him!

Rejoice!