VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Sun, Jun 20 04
Author: Kenny B
Subject: Taking Risks

"When you dig a well, you may fall in. When you demolish an old wall, you could be bitten by a snake. When you work in a quarry, stones might fall and crush you! When you chop wood, there is danger with each stroke of your ax! Such are the risks of life."
Ecclesiastes 10:8-9

Recently, I've been out looking for different places to live. Searching high and low for the "ideal" place. If you've ever done it, you know sometimes it's a pretty rough and tedious job. Trying to find the right location, price, ammenties, neighbors, and countless other things can be tremendously frustrating. As I've come to realize, finding all the exact things you want in a house/apartment does not happen; you have to make concessions. These concessions all have some level of risk.

For example, if you were to sacrifice your neighborhood for gaining all the other things you wanted. You run the risk of being in some scary, uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situations (i.e., robberies, other types of crime and whatnot). On the other hand, if you sacrifice the price - meaning you weren't able to comfortably pay for it; you risk not being able to pay for it and getting kicked out.

Everyday, like it or not, people must take risks. It is my belief that risk are two-fold (if you will). There are the subconscious routine risks and the purposeful risks. Let me clarify:

The subconscious routine risks are risks that you take daily without really noticing. These include driving your car, walking down the street, eating, and things of that sort. We, every living being, do these things nearly everyday without really weighing the consequences. For instance, we could walk down the street and a car could cross the median and hit us. Or, we could unknowingly eat something that could potentially kill us.

Alternatively, purposeful risks are those that, as the name would suggest, we do willingly. They may look like this:

You use your last $20 on a new shirt, when you know you should have paid your overdue cell phone bill.

You purposefully decide to risks your cell phone being disconnected for the new shirt.

This week, I've been thinking about why often times we willingly take unwise risks without the smallest thought of the consequences (good or bad) it may have. Yet, we don't take the risks that we know are beneficial to others as well as ourselves. Why we let laziness, hurt feelings, egotisim, past events, and numerous other destructive stuff, get in the way of us taking wise risks.

Consequently, I have come to this conclusion. Simply put: We wait for PERFECT conditions. We wait for everything to be exactly as we imagined it. We wait for our way, our timing, our convenience, and we always want to know the outcome. That is very selfish and leaves little room for faith. Moreover, Solomon cautions us against this:

"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done." Ecclesiastes 11:4

Imagine if you waited to know everything about the Bible before you shared your faith with someone else, you waited to know everything about your profession before you went out to get a job, or you waited to know the outcome of the relationships you formed before becoming friends with people. Seem silly...exactly! As the verse states, you will never get anything done.

So, my challenge is this: Take (wise) risks! Whether it be in regards to witnessing, getting out of your comfort zone, relationships, school, jobs/careers, or whatever life might bring your way, just do it! And know this, when you open yourself up to new things, you let the good in with the bad. Sometimes you might be frustrated, hurt, sad or whatever. From time to time these things will happen, just keep pressing on. And know that God is in control.

As always, I hope you all are doing well. I hope and pray that you are continually growing into the fullness of Christ. And joining with Christ and local churches to reach out to the lost people in hopes of attaining the hope that we have. Take Care of yourselves.


Your Brother In Christ,

Kenny B

"It does no good to charm a snake after it has bitten you."

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.