THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO BE WICKED

Michael Ryan

A group of us on an overnight retreat at Laurel Lake discovered a 40 ft cliff overlooking the water. There we were, college freshmen, both guys and girls, in regular street clothes overlooking a lake 40 feet down.
Almost immediately, we started speculating about whether or not it was safe to jump. Someone suggested, “We should check how deep the water is first.” I’d like to think I said that, but I don’t remember. Suddenly, one of the guys just jumped! We all gasped at the craziness of jumping before we checked the depth of the lake. It was a long tense moment waiting to see if I was about to witness someone die before my eyes.

He came out of the water and yelled like he’d just won the NCAA basketball championship. Over the next several minutes we all answered with a resounding “YES!” that question our moms used to ask: If your friends were jumping off a cliff, would you follow them?!

It was an incredible experience flying through the air and plunging into the water like that. I don’t remember how many times I jumped. I’ll never forget it. By God’s grace, we all returned safely. By the way, If you are a child or a teenager reading this, what we did was crazy, especially not knowing what was below the surface. I strongly don’t recommend it.

I borrowed the title above from chapter 11 in J.D. Greear’s book “Gaining By Losing.” In that chapter, J.D. tells a story that reminded me of my own story above. The point of the chapter is that many of the most important things in life involve taking a risk. There is the risk of rejection when applying for a school, asking someone out for a date, or asking someone to marry you, but most will push through the fear to take those actions anyway. Other risks we get used to such as those inherent to driving, playing sports, and using a chainsaw. Some risks we would rather avoid, but know we must eventually face, so we hand car keys to a new driver.

Somehow we have gotten the idea that following Jesus is safe and that our church experience should always be comforting and encouraging. However, the picture of the “in Christ” life in scripture is anything but safe. In the parable of the talents Jesus calls the man who played it safe wicked! Yes, the servant who did nothing with his talent was dubbed wicked! Read it for yourself in Matt. 25:26-30. J.D. quotes another of my favorite authors, John Piper, who says of the apostle Paul that:

[He] never knew where the next blow would come from. Every day he risked his life for the cause of God. The roads weren’t safe. The rivers weren’t safe. His own people, the Jews, weren’t safe. The Gentiles weren’t safe. The cities weren’t safe. The wilderness wasn’t safe. The sea wasn’t safe. Even the so-called Christian brothers weren’t safe. Safety was a mirage. It simply didn’t exist for the apostle Paul.

Piper goes on to say, “The Christian life is a call to risk. You either live with risk or waste your life.”

Those are strong words. Based on that criteria, I’ve wasted too much time. Risk taking requires active trust in God’s goodness and his ability to preserve us even as we know that we will not always be protected. See Hebrews 11:32-38 for my favorite passage that demonstrates this reality.

There are many risks God could be calling you to take. Perhaps God is calling you to help start the new group that Ben Haygood is beginning this Sunday? How about participating in our Easter outreach on April 8th at the mall? It may feel like a risk to invite a neighbor to our Easter service, or to have a gospel conversation with a co-worker, or to dive into a difficult conversation with a friend or a family member. But as another book in my library says, “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.”

Sunday, the series Making Eggs Fly continues when we will explore another reason why we would risk: the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. I’m fired up for that already!