John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life is a must read as we as American Christians spend an exceptional amount of time wasting away our lives. We spend inordinate amounts of time on an array of time consuming tasks and hobbies that are completely useless for the Kingdom. Conversely, we need to step out in faith and take the risks that we have been trained or simply innately feel we need to avoid. Yet those risks are the very tasks of life we should be contemplating. Consider just the following two sentences (of many just as powerful) from the chapter, Risk is Right - Better to Lose Your Life Than Waste It:
And what if a successful risk would bring great benefit to many people, and its failure would bring harm only to yourself? It may not be loving to choose comfort or security when something great may be achieved for the cause of Christ and for the good of others.
That should hit us like a ton of bricks. We usually consider risks in light of our family or employment which provides security and comfort. However, we are never promised comfort and no matter how we try to hide behind a perceived biblical call for security, it just can't be found in the pages of Scripture. Taking risks is. Stepping outside the camp, that is, outside our comfort zone and below our financial happiness target is within the Christians' mandate. We should all read this little tome and evaluate where we are lacking. What part do you & I play now in bringing in the kingdom? What part would you & I play if we would take that risk?
May we all count the cost and then take the risk.
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