I'm pretty sure the sense of danger is learned from a very young age. I can remember my sister and I jumping on my parents bed when we lived in Michigan. I was probably like 7 or 8 and my sister was probably 4 or 5. We would jump forever, do tricks, make up routines that we would perform for our parents and we did this very often. I remember once though that we jumped a little too close to the edge and my sister fell off; smashing her arm between her body and the heating vent that was on the floor. I don't remember but I think we took her to the doctor right after that to find out that it was sprained. It scared my sister and I a lot and we learned that it was dangerous to jump like that on the bed and after that we were more careful.
Then when I was a little bit older probably in like 5th or 6th grade, I had my first trip to a theme park. We loaded up and went with some family friends. We rode rides all day and at the very end of the day my friend (who was a little older than I) decided he was going to ride one of the bigger roller coasters. He tried to convince me to go, but there was no way on earth that I was getting on that ride. So my friends dad gave me a little pep talk and told me that there was nothing to be afraid of that it was totally safe. I was still really terrified because I knew that it was dangerous; if I fell out of that ride I was sure to die and even if I rode it I was sure to get hurt. haha. So my friends dad finally told me he would give me 10 dollars if I got on and rode it, so I decided that if he was that confidant then I would get on. I climbed in the seat and grabbed tight to my friends hand. I kept my eyes tightly closed through the whole ride and when it was over I smiled and eagerly collected my 10 dollars. Then I rode it again.
When I was younger I was scared of things that were dangerous, its because I knew that there was a possibility that I could get hurt, or something bad would happen. I didn't want to risk it. The older we get the more danger presents itself; sometimes danger that we know we should avoid, sometimes danger that gives us an opportunity to show others (and maybe ourselves) that we aren't afraid.
Last sunday my pastor said something about taking a risk and taking a chance on something even it was dangerous. He said it in a specific context but the more I thought about that simple phrase the more I began to see where I could apply it to my life.
Sometimes God asks us to take risks and to do things that are dangerous; at first we say no because we know that there's a potential that the situation could end badly, or that we'd be worse off than we were before. We're scared, but mostly...we're untrusting. We think God must be crazy and must not realize what's on the line, what we really could lose. We fail to remember that our God is all-knowing and HIS plan makes so much more sense than ours.
My boyfriend and I had talked about marriage several times before, we were excited about the day that we would finally be able to be husband and wife, but we knew that realistically it would be smarter to wait to do this until we were both out of college and had had time to establish ourselves and our careers. We recently felt God tell us that we needed to put more trust in him, and that he had a plan he wanted us to follow, because he was preparing us for something great and in order for him to do that we needed to get married sooner rather than later. At first this request was out of the question and we both started making excuses; we don't have the money, we aren't ready, we're too young...etc.
What happened next was amazing; God softened our hearts and showed us that his plan was going to be amazing and that we needed to trust that it would all work out to glorify him! So we made it official and got engaged. We are getting married this summer and neither of us can hardly wait to see what God has in store.
The risk God is asking us to take is a great one. See even though it has been not even a month since we got engaged; the devil has already been hard at work trying to tell us that this plan is a silly one. There has been negative criticism from friends, set backs, and spiritual warfare. Something I realized lately is that the reason the devil is attacking so much is because what we're doing is dangerous. It's dangerous because the devil knows that by us trusting in God, it will interfere with what the devil does best; steal, kill, and destroy. It's dangerous because it glorifies God, and the devil hates that.
What amazes me is this: we're so afraid to live dangerously because we're afraid that the situation will turn out badly, and it will end in pain. But God's plan doesn't end badly, it ends in true life, and love and living in HIS glory...and I can't think of any other way I would want this story to end. (or any story for that matter) Living dangerously is a risk, a lot of times it can be scary but God loves us so much he wants us to trust him and see that he laid it all on the line for us so that we could be with him, and if we lay it all on the line for him then we can experience the true power of his glory and majesty and love.
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