Risk is Right

“Risk is right.”- John Piper

I usually don’t encourage others to read a book until I have finished it, but I feel fairly confident about this one.  So if you are looking for a book with challenging theology and convicting arguments about life and purpose, you need to pick up Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper.  I’ll probably wait to finish the book to give my complete list of thoughts, but there has been one chapter that I just have to write about.  Now.

Throughout the book, John Piper has been speaking to many of my current convictions and feelings about American culture and American church culture.   He has encouraged the many questions I have been asking about my own life and their need to be asked, by everyone.  Am I pursuing a prosperous life that God wishes for me, or am I imposing what my own beliefs of what it means to be prosperous?  Am I grasping the magnitude of what God has purposed me for, or am I distracted by a comfortable life or this “enchantment of security” that John Piper says so many of us fall into?  Do I truly believe that God will prepare and provide for me, or do I need to be constantly worrying about my immediate needs?  Do I think my constant preparation for the future is to glorify God, or am I trying to minimize risk of living uncomfortably? 

That is just the short list…  I have had so many questions running through my head this last year that I don’t feel this list does it justice, but that’s not the focus.  The commonality among all these questions is asking on some level if I am living life in accordance with the Gospel?  For me I feel like my life is too safe, to easy, lacking too man relationships with hurting and broken people, and too risk free to “fit” into the pages of the New Testament.  This is why John Piper’s simple statement struck such a chord in my life.

Friends, “Risk is right”. 

“On the far side of every risk–even if it results in death—the love of God triumphs.  This is the faith that frees us to risk for the cause of God.  It is not heroism, or lust for adventure, or courageous self-reliance, or efforts to earn God’s favor.  It is childlike faith in the triumph of God’s love—that on the other side of all our risks, for the sake of righteousness, God will still be holding us.  We will be eternally satisfied in Him.  Nothing will have been wasted.” [emphasis added]

(Don't Waste Your Life, John Piper)

This may just be me, but I believe my call to follow Christ has been distracted by my comfort bubble too long, avoiding risk like we avoid that awkward admirer… the knowing that they are there but hoping that if you ignore them long enough maybe they’ll just go away, kind of thing.   If I truly let the God of the Bible prepare and provide for me, as he constantly promises, I think I would be willing to risk a little more for His sake and making His glory known. 

Friends, it is my hope that we can help each other learn to risk it all for the sake of Christ, sooner rather than later.  Today I ask you to consider the things that are keeping us from living the Gospel; only we can answer these questions for ourselves.  We have been given only one life; let’s not waste it. 

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

Leadership Outline

To be brief, let’s just say it was a crazy few weeks, certainly ones that I will never forget.  I’m sure future journal entries will include a few of these simply unbelievable stories.  And still, in all the craziness I have been drawn back to the topic of discipleship, and developing spiritual leaders for this generation (myself included).  My heart for this past year has been to inspire male leaders to pursue the heart of God; something I wish was more prevalent today.  In looking at potential books of the Bible to study for the upcoming months I came across Paul’s letter to Titus.  I’ve read this before, but must have been preoccupied, because what I came across was pure gold, probably better than gold… how could I have possibly missed it the first time? 

In the first chapter (Titus 1), Paul outlines what a spiritual leader is not, how they should act, how to prepare for leadership, and why we need to be prepared.

What a spiritual leader is not.

Titus 1:7

Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 

Friends, leadership is not about the list of things we cannot do.  Yet Paul offers us clear warnings of things that will ruin us as leaders.  If we treat others in the manner that Paul clearly warns us not to, we will be presenting a human version of the gospel.  In order to avoid these things, we must surrender our human desires to the Lord.  It is not by our own power and will, that will be able to avoid these types of behavior. 

From personal experience, being an overbearing, quick-tempered leader has hurt a lot of people in my life.  Not to mention, there were not many (if any) who wanted to follow me…  Fortunately I was able to use soccer as an avenue for discovering that this is not how we were intended to treat others, let alone lead them.  Thankfully, Paul offers better options for us to strive for. 

How a spiritual leader should act.

Titus 1:8

Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 

Treat people kindly, respectfully, and with love. Additionally, lead by example.  The more in touch we are with God, the source of Pure Love, the better we will be able to share this love through us.  Leadership is not about telling people what to do or how to do it… it is instilling the desire deep within them, so they do it willingly and passionately, for the glory of the Lord. 

The second half of this is understanding that the life of a leader, especially a spiritual leader, will take self-control and discipline.  It is easy to let cultural and social pressures influence certain decisions you make, yet in leading others we cannot waver in our beliefs, we must be strive to be blameless, holy, and upright.   

How to prepare for leadership.

Titus 1:9

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Grab your sword, hold firmly to the Gospel!  Aspiring leaders, we must open our Bibles and take ownership of our faith.  We cannot depend solely on Church and/or Bible study on a weekly basis to prepare us for the trials of this world.  I could journal for days on this topic, but to prepare you must spend time in the word, in prayer, and in community with other Christ followers.  Without these three basic ingredients, we truly are “sheep among wolves”, but without an adequate understanding of our desperate need to depend on God. 

If we struggle to explain how greatly we are loved by God, the gospel message, our need for a savior, or simply what we believe… then we are in desperate need of increasing our time spent in the word and in prayer.  If we do give God our best (in terms of time) instead of our leftovers, it will be incredibly difficult to hold firmly to this trustworthy message when we are challenged. 

Why we need to be prepared

Titus 1:10-11

For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group.  They must be silenced because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 

The bottom line: Souls are at stake!  Friends, if we cannot defend our faith, then we are losing countless souls for God’s kingdom.  Not only are we not winning souls, will we even be able to keep our own from falling subject to the lies that so many believe?  Friends, when we come to a realization of what the stakes are, we can no longer mindlessly meander through life or faith.  There has to be initiation, and there has to be urgency.  Groups of people (entire households) are being lost, there is still countless people dying of preventable diseases and starvation, and we are comfortable reading our Bibles once a month and trying to give God an hour every Sunday… This is not leadership, it is not what we have been called to do, we are not pursuing souls, and we not being useful servants of Christ.    

I hope this little bit of scripture has convicted you as it has me.  We are in time that desperately needs committed followers of Christ to encourage others to join them in their pursuit of God’s will for their life.  My prayer is that His will is made clear as we pursue Him, together. 

No one said it would be easy...

For what it is worth, I hope this post is encouraging, as discouraging as it may read.  It seems that the last few weeks of my life have been filled with a common theme that many of us struggle with in our pursuit of Christ.  I have been blessed with an opportunity to live in a close community of young men, who are passionately pursuing the heart of God, for the next few months…  and I could not be more grateful for this opportunity, especially now. 

Brothers and Sisters, followers of Christ, we have chosen a difficult journey.  The adventure that we have signed up for by following Christ is just that, an adventure. 

Will it be fun, exciting, and at times painful?  Yes. 

Will it be easy?  Absolutely not. 

Somewhere along the line we fell into this ideal that following Christ will mean an easy and prosperous life, free from hardship.  I do not know where we get such ideas.  When we study the Word, God never promises us an easy life for putting our faith, hope, and trust in him.  We have twisted God’s promise of a more fulfilling life to think that we will have a more prosperous, blessed, and easier way of life.

Friends, these are lies. 

No one said it would be easy. 

In fact, the Bible constantly reminds us of the difficulties that we will face (See: Matthew 6:34, John 16:33, Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4).  The Bible constantly reminds us of our need to be actively pursuing Christ (Romans 8:1-2, II Corinthians 1:8-11) .  The Bible constantly reminds us to be ready to face opposition, because it will come (I came across this great sermon my Mark Driscoll from Nehemiah 4 on this, if you have an hour please watch it).

Why do you think it so important to be in community with those who share your heart?  Why do you think we desperately need to spend time in prayer and reading our Bible? 

Because it [passionately following Christ] is not easy, especially when we try to do it alone. 

It is not easy to live by faith, when culture is telling us to take control of our own lives.  It is not easy to love others, when culture tells us that love is a currency, to be used for our own self-gain.  It is not easy to surrender everything, when culture tells us that we are defined by our material possessions, relationships, successes, and even failures. 

I hope you see the picture that I am trying to paint, if our lives are becoming too easy for too long… maybe we need to examine our heart.  Do I think that every minute of every day must be difficult to prove that we are following Christ?  No.  Yet, if our hearts are to glorify God we must know that we will run into hardship. There will be people who oppose us. 

However, we do have hope.  We have been promised life, and life to the fullest.  Additionally, we have been granted the opportunity to see the world through our Savior’s eyes.  If we remain faithful in our struggle with sin, if we struggle well, He will elevate us.  Daniel was spared from the mouths’ of angry lions (Daniel 6).  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were spared from a fiery furnace (Daniel 3). Elijah brought fire from heaven, on multiple occasions (I and II Kings).  Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, placed in prison, and was then elevated to the second highest position in Egypt (Genesis 37-45).  Paul and Peter faced constant imprisonment; James and Stephen were killed for their faith (Acts and pretty much the whole New Testament).  Jesus was conspired against, betrayed, mocked, beaten, and crucified…  These are who we should aspire to model our faith after.

Do I think all of us will face such extreme persecution?  No, but if the value of our lives were the salvation of countless others like these men and Jesus, shouldn’t we live in a way that stirs the pot a little?  Maybe a lot (we can only hope)?  I truly believe that if we surrender to God’s will for us, he will use us for great things… just like all of these faithful followers. 

If you have made it this far into this post, thank you for sticking with me.  While I am not the first to tell you, or at least I hope not, being a Christ follower will not always be easy. But God has not left us to do it alone either, we have our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we have Him.  What more could we need?

II Corinthians 1:9-10

“Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.  On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,”