“There are so many unknowns. . . . Risk is the only way forward.”- John Piper, Risk is Right: Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It (Crossway, 2013)
In Chapter 8 (“When Waiting Is Risky”) of Still Waiting, Ann Swindell notes the consequences of her failure to risk. First, Ann’s fear coerced he into the false belief she needed a lot of social currency with another before taking the risk of revealing her condition. Next, she’d circumvented questions about her trich in some form for most of her life. Thus, Ann tried to wriggle out of explaining trichotillomania.
Therefore, the author asserts, we take a risk in telling others about our brokenness. It’s risky because we can’t control what others do with our confession. Yet, Ann underscores, “risk is inexorably bound up in faith.” Time and time again she’s found that risk seem important to God.
Furthermore, biblical people of faith – Abraham, Daniel, the Virgin Mary, for example – trusted that the rewards of their faith greatly outweighed the risks facing them. And the Bleeding Woman, already bereft of social standing, jeopardized her last thread to dignity to encounter Jesus. After exhausting almost all her choices, only risking remained. If we’re honest, Ann states, that’s the only choice we have left as well.
Most noteworthy, no one sees our internal risks that we take with God. You take risks when you choose to keep your spirit open and vulnerable. Even when your prayers go unanswered in the way you with and know God can! The author summarizes:
“This is the real, hard work of faith for most of us — not jumping off cliffs or swimming in shark-infested waters, but being willing to lay our hearts and souls bare before God without protection or pretense. It’s risky to open our hearts to the Lord when our dreams and desires don’t line up with reality.”
Today’s question: How do you embrace riskiness as the only way forward? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Staying tender and needy before God”