I rarely like being in a place where I know I will not win. What’s the point? Why start something that you don’t come out on top? Is there a reason to be involved if you are not going to have fun and triumph? Could there be something so compelling that you would risk everything? I don’t think so! Having fun and winning is what life is all about! Calculated risks are fine but jumping off a cliff into the unknown without a lifeline is just stupid.
I have lived much of my life along these lines and then something happened. More than a decade ago someone actually showed me life could be different. Life wasn’t about winning it was about living. Success wasn’t in a destination but a process. You did things not for what others would or should think, you took them on for the purpose within the action. If one threw some paint or shaped a sculpture then it had to be from and for the heart, nothing more. If one reached out to another it was because of true friendship, nothing more. If one did something for another it was always in sharing the gifts that others had already bestowed. Danger zones only came into play when you expected something in return.
It is fun now to reflect on the pre and post views of what happened in Jesus life. The story begins like this. “One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, ‘Do you want to get well?’” (John 5.5, 6)
Would I be willing to put myself in a position where I offered something normally unachievable? Physical miracles are easy when compared the risk and healing that comes with true friendship. In the early days I would have been anywhere but near the invalid. Now I am willing to be there, hoping I have the courage to act. Today is an opportunity to discover what God can do.
