Gathering the Courage to Take Risks

I wrote this almost a year ago now. It spoke volumes to me:

Risk, risk, and yet more risk
Working for a global accounting firm, I am accustomed to being reminded every hour of every day on the importance of managing risks; and the Bible is full of examples of every day people who took risks. Every day people who dared to believe God, who dared to be moved by Godly counsel or who dared to honour God (at times hesitantly) through an act of obedience to the quiet voice within: the eleven disciples, Esther and Abraham are but a few examples.

Risk taking is an intrinsic part of every day life, and the decision, the choice, as to whether to take a risk or not unambiguously demonstrates the resolve, values and faith level of the one who is doing the decision making.

Beauty queen turned liberator
Esther’s story is a significant illustration of the necessity and the value of gathering the courage to take risks. Hers was a particularly noteworthy risk taking venture; fuelled by reverence, great spiritual resolve, and respect for her mentor Mordecai. Having made it to the palace as queen, Esther’s cousin and mentor Mordecai sends a message to her with instructions to go to the king and plead with him to annul the decree to massacre the Jews in all the king’s provinces (the Book of Esther, chapter 4).

Esther’s response is honest, yet painstaking: ‘’Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold sceptre; then he or she may live. And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.’’

Go get a mentor
Her cousin’s response demonstrates the importance of having mentors to guide and counsel you during times of difficulty, during seasons which require risk-taking. ‘’Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you are the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.’’

Two points shout out at me in that response: realising that God wants to use you but if you don’t avail yourself to be used He has other alternatives, and the fact that to everything there is a season, a right time for everything under the sun. This was Esther’s season; her opportunity to choose to impact her generation. Fuelled by this counsel, Esther reverently declares a three-day fasting and praying period and works through a plan to approach the king, uninvited: ‘’I will go to the king, even though it is forbidden. If I die, I die.’’ That is risk taking to the core.

The dignity of reverence
A testimony to the power of prayer and fasting, the dignity of reverence for God and the reward of gathering the courage to take risks, the Bible records that Esther, uninvited, approaches the king and he, uncharacteristically, welcomes her and hears her out. In a dramatic turnaround, the plot - to massacre all the exiled Jews who lived in the expanse of fifth century BC Persia – fails.

And then none get killed
It turns out that no God-representing men and women get killed in this story.

I am convinced that God-honouring and God-worshipping people do not get killed, do not die, do not get totally cut off, in anyone of our life stories - whether that be spiritually, emotionally, financially or whichever the case may be. The Bible says weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. It also records the words of Christ Jesus which warn that in this world we will have many troubles, but also enlightens us that for us, Christ has overcome them all.

Learning to lose ourselves in faith, hope and love
Victory is assured because of the decisions you make, the risks you take and the sacrifices that you make in reverence to the Word, the leading of the Holy Spirit and the Blood shed for each one of us at Mount Calvary. Matthew 28 reads: ‘’Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw Him, they worshipped Him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.’’ Noting the presence of his disciples, and in reverence to His Father, Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and told them exactly what He had in mind to tell them, regardless of the doubting Thomas’ who did not want to risk themselves totally. He gave them this charge: ‘’Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.’’

Should I stay or should I go?
I woke up this morning with my head full of a risk-taking choice which I have to decide on. Faced with an offer of relocation to a position in which I’d enjoy a significant salary increase, in a country of my birth and where I would be with my elderly mother, my siblings - plus the prospect of notably more challenging and exciting work - I still find myself wanting. Age thirty-five and alone in a third country which has become my home over the past three years, I ponder what I would lose if I took the risk and accepted the offer before me.

And what about my networks?
What I know for sure is that the one thing I would lose is the intimacy with God in the community of believers I have come to know and cherish through the local church I have been attending over the past three years; and the treasured, life-impacting friendships I have come to develop among a few people that work and play has brought me in contact with. What a delight and comfort some of these have been.

On being faithful to what you know you've been called to do
In my local church, I serve as a steward in various leadership capacities. Through that same local church I have also come into contact with a handful of like-minded people and made some friendships which have led to the formation of a number of exciting outreach projects. And I don’t want to give these up. I don’t want to start all over again. I know that intimacy with God is something that you carry with you, that there are a thousand and one other Word-based and life impacting churches in the city in which I am being offered this promotion, and that God can make me a home in this new city and put me into contact with a new family of believers – but I don’t want to go. And I am not sure if I am being short-sighted.

On trusting in Him
My heart says no; that there is work also to do here. The singular and distinct feature which attracts me to the offer is the prospect of yet more challenging and exciting work. But my heart is telling me that if I take the risk of believing God and remaining in my seemingly ‘desert land’, He will make the rough places smooth and that I will drink water from rocks. And like Esther, I want to talk this over with my mentor.

As I embarked on quiet time this morning, I flicked through my Bible and came across a decisive note I had written alongside Matthew 28 verses 16-20 almost a year ago. It reads as such: ‘’Don’t be unsure about risking your life totally in worship of God. It is in totally risking your life in worship, total worship of God, that you regain your life – that you regain hope, joy, prosperity, you regain back lost dreams. Therefore do not be afraid – and give your life totally to God, in Christ Jesus. 13 July 2005, Nairobi, Serena Hotel.’’