Risk

If you want to enter the kingdom of God, you must be like a little child. What does that mean? Childlike how? Trust? What does childlike trust look like?

In a healthy family, a child can know of their parents’ love and nuturing, but when it comes to learning new things like walking, riding a bike, or rollerskating, or whatever the experience is, that child is going to have to experience bumps, bruises, scrapes, scabs and cuts. Why? Because they have to learn. The parents, no matter how much they love them and want to protect them, have to let the child learn. They can offer tips, advice, wisdom and insight, but the child has to do it. The child has to risk something personally to gain the experience.

As an adult, how often do you or I ever have a bruise, bump, scrape or scab? Who do you see wearing the casts-adults or kids? I don’t need to answer those questions for you-you know the answer. But what happens to us? Why do we get more conservative and safe as we get older? (p.s. Please don’t answer “wisdom” on this one…..) As we grow older, we tend to take less risks, we want to be safer and we avoid pain at all costs. Where is that in the Bible?

Moses was 80 when he led Israel out of Egypt. Abraham was almost 100 when he had Isaac, and over 100 when he had to sacrifice him on top of Moriah. David probably didn’t become king of all of Israel until he was at least 30, and some scholars suggest closer to 40. And after he became king, he went on to do even more great things!

Why do we play it safe the older we get? And why do we love movies of heroism and greatness (Braveheart and Gladiator, just to name a couple), but at the same time, we are too afraid to pursue anything risky? I think it is rooted in some hidden fear that Satan puts in our hearts. Can you imagine what the Kingdom of God would look like if it was led by an army of grown-ups who have the resources and the wisdom of age, but also the risk-taking trusting heart of a child? The earth would tremble.

The irony is that we want safety and security, but that’s the one thing God never promised. The beautiful promise of God involved His faithfulness and that He wouldn’t leave us or forsake us. The things we do in life that seem adventurous take some risk: Rock climbing, water skiing, surfing, investing….. What about living for God? When did that become safe?

If living for God is supposed to be the greatest “adventure” of all (thank you, Steven Curtis), then what are we risking? And if we can’t think of a good answer to that, then are we truly living the kind of life that Christ taught us in the New Testament?

We study and follow a book full of true accounts of people who lived risky unsafe lives, and yes, they sometimes screwed up. But how can we claim to follow God and not live the same kind of life?

Pirates for Jesus (aka Treasure Hunting)

Remember the verse that Jesus spoke in the New Testament- “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?”

I guess what breaks my heart is that the church has construed this verse to mean that you should tithe and give the church your money. And the truth is, we should bring the tithe into the house of the Lord-but this verse doesn’t tell us that. In Luke, it may suggest something much different. It talks about seeking the kingdom of God and selling our possessions and giving them to the poor. So let me ask you this. What if we looked at Jesus’ actions to shed light on His teachings? Jesus was a homeless man without a job during his ministry. If he didn’t have any money, then what was his treasure?

The modern preacher uses the illustration, “Show me your checkbook, and I’ll be able to see your priorities in life.” i.e. where your treasure is. But this is all with the basic premise of a materialistic society that thinks treasure is monetary wealth. In Mozambique, in the dumps outside of the city where children go through trash to find food and shelter, with no jobs or money, where is their treasure? Since they have no money, is that teaching of Christ not applicable to them? They don't have a monthly budget or a checkbook, so if you believe that preacher’s illustration, it wouldn't even apply to the poor. But let me ask you again in another way….

What does God consider His treasures? And what would happen if we treasured what God treasures and lived our life in a way that our priorities reflected that?

Here's what I'm suggesting: I believe that God’s treasure is His people, and since the beginning of Time, God’s heart has been with His people. His entire plan was to redeem and reconcile with His treasure. Where His treasure was, there His heart was also.

People were the crowning jewel of the creation. The world was not yet complete until God placed man and woman in it. God created man to have a relationship with….man is the only piece of His creation with a free will and an eternal spirit. The loss of that relationship through sin is why God sent His own Son to die. Would God send Christ to die for something that didn’t really matter, or someone He didn’t treasure? Probably not.

For God to plan to take the form of a man and live a life in order to die for His people….this act of God declares that people are His treasure. Men and women are incredibly valuable in His eyes. Nothing else matters to God….He even gave man the power of dominion over the rest of creation!

What if the church today treated people as their treasure? What would be the byproduct? I have a few ideas…..I don’t think that for churches, buildings and programs would be a top priority. I don’t think fundraising for those same buildings and programs would be the focus. I don’t think the church could truly allow the “least of these” to remain poor and hurting in their city. It doesn’t seem that it could happen if God’s treasure was also ours.

And if God’s treasure was also ours, would we wait inside our Sunday School classes, or on our church property hoping the lost and hurting would come to us and ask for help? Or would we follow the example of Christ who left heaven to go to the hurting….. even when Christ was here, we see His example of going out-feeding the poor and healing the sick WHILE He was still preaching and teaching and discipling. (See previous blog on “Magnets or Viruses”)

I’m afraid that we have compartmentalized and departmentalized church to the point that we think we are only supposed to follow one aspect of Christ and that someone else is supposed to pick up the rest of the slack. We think if we do the preaching, others should do the discipling, others should be worshiping God, or others should be feeding the poor. I’m not sure where it came from, but this idea of only having to do one thing for God, or just live for one scripture doesn’t seem to be biblical.

All of our lives are to be sacrificed for God for the purpose of redeeming His treasure. If we laid up for ourselves treasures in heaven, and we truly believed that treasures weren’t good works, but lives touched for the kingdom (see Isaiah 58), I believe it would revolutionize the way we do what we do in the body of Christ. Don’t you?