Faith=Risk

I’ve got to stop getting life changing advise from soda bottle caps! If you will recall, my first journal entry on the old site was about a soda bottle cap telling me to start a journal...so I did. I started this fine web journal that I love doing...although, I must admit that I feel a lot of pressure to post but not so much anymore since my friends, Aaron, Terry, Aimee and Jaime don’t feel the need to post at all lately.

Last week, we watched “Riding Giants” a good film by Stacy Peralta (of Dogtown and Z-boys). It’s about big wave surfing and the men who pioneered riding...er...the..um..giants. Anyhoo...I would recommend it. It’s a fun documentary. The question I ask when I watch these “extreme sports” people is if I am missing a bit of what they have? What is this element that makes people want to try the seemingly impossible? I don’t think I have that piece. Or do I?

One of the stories is of a kid who noticed big, 30 foot waves breaking off the coast of Half Moon Bay, California. He loved surfing and had never tried surfing big waves. He tried to get a friend to go along but no one would try it with him. So he paddled for 45 minutes and surfed these monsters in treacherous, cold water. He did this all by himself for 15 years until the big wave surfing community found out.

What a challenge! If these guys can be that passionate about surfing, how many more other, more important issues in the world are there to lose your life pursuing. Some people actually die surfing these big waves. How much more is there to die for?

The call to follow Christ is a call to death. To lay down your life for your friends. Another thing that struck me about these guys is their willingness to die rescuing one another from a bad wipe out. But our laying down our lives can include but does not always mean actual death. I must lay down my life...lay down what I want to do and the things I feel important to serve the needs of others.

I felt such a challenge by this film that I wanted to show it to our little youth group. We talked afterward about what we want to do with our life and what we want to try that seems impossible. Several shared in the group and most shared one on one after. We talked about risk and dreams and reaching out for the impossible. Then Charlie bought me a soda from the grocery across the street, on the cap it reads, “Without risk there can be no pleasure.” What a wise little bottle cap. Someone told me once that faith = risk. As the song writer said, “If my reach doesn’t go beyond my grasp, then what’s a Heaven for and for what do I ask?”

The best inheritance I can leave my boys is to live a life of faith and watch God come through for us in ways we would have never guessed unless we took the risk of trusting Him. We do have that bit in us, we all do. The part that can look at the impossible and if you take the chance, have the ride of your life.