Playing it Safe vs Risking with God
I am reading a book called “Is your church too safe?” by Mark Buchanan. Last night I read a chapter that discussed The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) in a way I have never heard. Mark says this “This parable, I know, is usually cast as a story about stewardship, good and bad. It certainly is that. But just as much, it subverts some of the usual ways we think about stewardship. Stewardship evokes images of prudence, frugality, caution. Tithing off the top. Not buying on credit. Living within my means. Reducing my carbon footprint. These are all excellent things. But the stewardship commended in this story takes us in a whole other direction: it’s rough and tumbles, wild and wooly. Good and faithful servants are those who shoot the moon. They run with scissors. They leap before looking. The bad servant-the wicked, lazy servant-is the cautious one.” Now this parable has troubled me for some time because I see myself as a very cautious person. Mark goes on to talk about why this wicked servant is so cautious. “The root issue is not the amount. The root issue is this servant’s view of the master. Put bluntly, he sees the master as cheap, so he’s cheap. He sees the master as stingy and hoarding and mean spirited, so he goes and does likewise. In a word this man has bad theology. This is the real point of the story: how you see God affects how you live.”
A final comparison of the wicked servant and the prodigal son drives the point home.
“We’ve seen what the bad servant’s bad theology produces. Not wild living. Not extravagant self indulgence. Not wanton wastefulness. He’s no prodigal son. His bad theology produces extreme caution. Utter passivity. He won’t trust anyone or risk anything. Its not that he misuses what the master entrusts. Prodigals do that, and God has a soft spot for them. No, it’s that he never uses it at all. The master has no soft spot for that. In fact, when we set this story side by side with Jesus’ story of the prodigal son, the conclusion is startling: God would rather we waste his possessions than preserve them intact.”
This teaching is ringing true through my spirit because lately I’ve begun to risk with God, not tons by any means but more and more. In the past I have seen God as a God who expects me to act and perform perfectly and then He will love me. Because of this I am paralyzed with fear to move forward, afraid I’ll fail or disappoint Him. Caution is the name of the game! But over the past few years God has begun to help me KNOW (through experience) how He loves me abundantly and unconditionally. He has showed me numerous pictures with Laney. When she was one and learning to walk, we were walking down a very rocky hill together. She was holding my hand and would stumble all the time. But I was joyous that she was walking! I didn’t expect her to go down this hill alone, and certainly wasn’t expecting her to run a 5K. I was delighted in her tiny baby steps. He told me it’s the same for Him and me, as I learn to step out in faith and walk with Him. Recently, I have been trying to teach Laney. Often she flat shuts down and says, I can’t do that. She won’t even try. And I think, if only she’d try to write a Y, then I’d have something to work with. I would be overjoyed at this step and we’d work to the next. This week she missed out on a fun art project because she said she couldn’t do it and she refused to try. The fun and beauty of creating a picture was lost to her because she wouldn’t risk the try. And in that moment I heard the Lord’s voice telling me “A try is all I ask of you. Just try sweetheart!”Three years ago I was driven to risk with God by the sheer deadness inside of me. I felt I could not continue on this dead, boring religious road one more step. And when I took that first risk, it was heart pounding, butterflies in the stomach and scary, ahhh but it was LIVING! He’s there! It’s like watching Indiana Jones step out into the empty space only to have his foot meet the invisible path. It’s a crazy adventure to risk with God! So many before me have done it in amazing ways, this spurs me on, but not as much as the tiny risks I take. They result in a closer, more intimate knowledge of my Lord that shows me He is truly the God the scripture says He is! And knowing Him is LIFE to me! Living on the edge with the Lord is exhilarating and fills me with love for Him that I’ve never known. Where’s He calling you to risk with Him for the expansion of His kingdom? Yesterday, my heart pounding out of my ears, I invited someone to the Palm Sunday service. Its almost embaressing to say that was a baby step risk for me…a mission to the Middle East it was not, but it pleased my Abba and it felt sooo good! Where have you risked in the past and failed? Know that He was delighted with you and is also faithful! I don’t know why sometimes it’s fruitless to our eyes but God does and He is trust worthy. Will you join me? Will you start taking risks? Will you dust yourself off after a risk that seems to have failed and trust your God? After all, its about the relationship with Him and not always the results.
I awoke with this song in my head:
“It’s your love that we adore
It’s like a sea without a shore.
We’re lost in You. We’re lost in You.
Just set yourself and risk the oceans.
Show me grace. Let’s risk the ocean.
Where you go we will follow I’m on my knees
where you go we will follow Oh God send me.”
Sometimes by David Crowder Band Here for You Passion Album
