At Risk

Ideas are extremely valuable.  They are also fragile.  In order for ideas to survive they must be nurtured, protected, and developed.  Ironically the processes which help them survive will also stifle and eventually kill them unless they live with growing amount of freedom.  In the middle, everything is at risk! 
 
For most of my life I have tried to push boundaries out wider and higher.  I could try and blame my parents but the inner desire to stretch the edges of what others considered normal was mine.  With each phase of life there are lessons to be learned, ways to grow, and things never to repeat.  The biggest risk isn’t to one’s self, rather to the people and relationships which are left to defend the cause and take it on to a higher, more refined level. 
 
The challenge and stress of it all spans every aspect of life today.  Corporate cultures ask for change and then spend most of their collective energies resisting change at all costs.  Politicians talk about change and then spend most of their time worrying about getting elected again.  Even sports figures change at their peril; unless there is an immediate improvement in scoring, winning, and success, the change will be challenge, questioned, and often quickly discarded.
 
With those around us the challenge is even more difficult.  We know the people involved.  We understand what is important to them.  The others in their life, spouses, kids, parents, siblings, and friends are well known.  This isn’t a choice where bad outcomes don’t come with a price!  Many “things” are a stake.
 
In the midst my prayer continues as a mantra, longing, and statement of what I hope I can be and do.  Sometimes I fall short, yet the goal remains. 
 
“I gave them your word; the godless world hated them because of it, because they didn't join the world's ways, just as I didn't join the world's ways.  I'm not asking that you take them out of the world but that you guard them from the Evil One. ” (John 17.14, 15)