Risk doesn't fit in a box

I like boxes.  They are square, stackable, neat and tidy. Everything safe and secure.  Baskets, too.  I LOVE baskets when I am in an organizational frenzy!  Life would be so amazing if everything was always put away, stored in it's rightful spot..all would be well with the world. 

We have been talking a lot about missions lately. In our church, in our home. And not just talking, but GOING.

With these trips there is a certain amount of RISK involved.  

Risk is uncomfortable.  It can be quite scary to step out into the unknown. 

 Risk doesn't fit in a box.

There are MANY, many awful things happening in our world today. Things worth standing up and stepping out for. Things we may need to risk something for. Poverty, disease, sex slavery, human trafficking, addiction, abuse, child soldiers, homelessness, the list is endless. I keep coming back to a passage of scripture in John 9:35-41 that hits me pretty hard when I read it.

v.39-41 says, " Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”     “If you were blind, you wouldn’t  be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see."  (emphasis mine)

Am I guilty? Are you?  Do we claim we can see, and yet turn our eyes from what is right in front of us?  I desperately do not want to be like the Pharisees, and yet some days I think we are more like them than we care to admit.

What reasons do you have for not getting involved?

I know what my reasons have been:

NUMBER ONE: I can't afford it.

number 2: I don't have time

number 3: my kids are too young

number 4: I am not ready/prepared spiritually

number 5: what will people think?

Look at these reasons as boxes stacked nicely on a shelf.  Packaging God up into neat little packages that we can organize and control. Everything in its place, as it should be. These reasons are all logical, valid reasons...from a human perspective, anyway.  I am the first to admit that the logical thinking comes in first.  

But what about the Holy Spirit?

What about God leading His people?

What about His plan and His provision for His purpose?

This is a very difficult mold to break out of.  Our society and our culture teaches us to be ultra-cautious, ultra-conservative.  Risk is seen in a negative light and frowned upon.

 

 I think what we really need to realize is that God is not bound by our thinking!! His views of our excuses are pretty clear:  His wealth is not reliant on our understanding of it.  His timing has nothing to do with ours.  We will never be prepared enough to go, by our standards, and who really cares what people think??!? We won't be answering to them in the end, anyway. Our actions do not have to take us over an ocean, away from small children. There is a definite season, I believe, where travel is not the top priority!  There are many local things we can be involved in, as mothers, that may only require phone calls or the occasional outing.  Having said that, I also know that there will be a time to GO.

I think it is time to unpack some boxes.  I believe that God would be happy to help!  God rarely throws money at people, opens the door, hands out plane tickets and says, "Have a great mission trip!" The degree that you risk is directly proportional to the amount He will provide. This has happened time and time again for me/us!  God pays for what He orders! He wouldn't ask us to do things if He was not going to provide a way.

So, now what?

Step out, I dare you. For the thrill of the adventure, for the excitement of seeing God step in as you step out.  Take a risk, with eyes that truly see.

One day at a time, 

step by step,

Darcie.