risk management

sometimes i wonder if we are constantly trying to live our life like Job.

i'm not talking about the time in life when Job had everything he knew taken from him and those he loved turned against him, but rather the "pre-trial" period in which all was going well.

let's take a step back into Job's life before he loses everything. he had all the creature comforts a man could need in his day. we can assume Job was comfortable. we can assume he wasn't in need of much, if anything. scripture tells us that during the great conversation between God and Satan (which is brilliant in itself), God asks Satan to consider testing Job. Satan's reply was to point out to God that Job had a "hedge around him and his household and everything he has."

i wonder -- do we want "a hedge" around us so that we can live a life of comfort and stability?

we live in a world where "risk management" reigns in our lives. we have insurance for our cars to protect us from accidents. we have insurance for our home to protect us in case of a fire, flood, tornadoes, and more. we have retirement plans we stock pile money into for our future. we live in homes in which the air is heated or cooled to meet our desired temperature. we drive cars with satellite navigation, satellite radio, heated seats, and airbags for every side of our body.

i do see the use for a few of these things, but i'm scared we've become comfortable with the hedge we are growing around us and we crave it more than we do the Gospel. it is a hedge stacking high and wide with the material comforts of our day.

have we become a people that minimize and manage risk in order to become more comfortable?

if we are creatures of comfort how does that correspond to the Gospel? would Jesus or the apostles live in the houses and neighborhoods we live, or drive the cars we drive?

does the Life of Christ translate as a life of risk management or a life of risk and faith?

perhaps we know within our souls that if we surrender fully to Jesus, He will ask us to go to places we never thought of going, and give up things we've grown accustomed to having. we love the idea of faith as long as we are safe or experience the perception of risk. too many have settled for their own tamed, water downed version of the Gospel, in which they follow the commands that make the most sense for their lives.

somehow along the way we have separated Risk and Faith and they were never meant to be apart.

living by way of risk management causes us to miss the heartbeat of the revolutionary nature of the call of Jesus.

this call of Jesus should invoke fear and faith. this calling always pushes us towards things that are much bigger than ourselves. Take a quick glimpse into some of the stories in scripture and examine the correlations between God moving and Risk.

God parts a large body of water for millions of men, women, and children to cross in order to flee an army that will surely annihilate them if caught.

a man is called to go to battle with a ridiculously small number of men who were from the weakest tribe, knowing they are outnumbered 100 to 1.

a young religious leader is called by God to stop what he is doing and serve Jesus, traveling village to village, city to city, telling people about the Messiah -- with the full knowledge that the men he used to kill Christians with would spare him no mercy.

a prophet is told to go to the capital city of Israel's arch enemy to tell them to repent or judgment will come. by the way, he was alone on this journey going to a hostile city of 120,000.

none of these challenges that faced these men and women were manageable by any means. these men didn't just appear courageous while minimizing their risk; they were courageous before they jumped into the risk. there was absolutely no way that a man could succeed in the situation, all resources were exhausted and the only thing left was faith. there were no odds in their favor, no back up plan to save the day, only God to step in and turn the tide.

none of the men in the stories mentioned above could take credit for the success. it was beyond what they were capable of doing.

we all have a part to play in this life of risk following Jesus. all of us are called to live as Christ lives. all of us are called to move toward the situations that are bigger than ourselves.

the invitation of Jesus is to abandon our whole self to Him; forgetting what we used to desire and letting go of everything with no hope of being able to control or manage Him.

i don't think God is looking for the people who act a certain way or do certain things because that is what good christians do.

i think God is looking for people who abandon themselves and run toward the cliff giving no thoughts to not jumping and plunge into the beautiful unknown.

may God ask us to give up more than we've ever imagined.

may we realize a life with Jesus is a life lived completely different than the american dream.

may we look ahead and see nothing but our next step.

may we leave our comfortable life behind and look toward new adventures of risk.