“Playing it safe is risky.”

A thought by Mark Batterson, Richard Foth, and Susanna Foth Aughtmon (2015-04-28) from their book, A Trip around the Sun: Turning Your Everyday Life into the Adventure ofa Lifetime (p. 46). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

I know. We think that playing it safe is what we want. But this weekend if we would have played it safe and stayed in our home in Studio City because we knew there was risk in getting in our car and heading up 5 hours to Yosemite we would have risked missing an extra ordinary experience that we will remember the rest of our lives. But we didn’t play it safe.

I mean, if we would have played it safe this morning, no way would Margaret have headed off to make a difference in the work that she does. There is always a risk when you get on the freeways of LA but there is also a risk when you don't.

I like how Mark puts it, “One of our three core convictions at National Community Church is that the church belongs in the middle of the marketplace. As our pastor of mission, Dave Schmidgall, likes to say, a church that stays within its four walls isn’t a church at all. Paul didn’t stand outside the Aereopagus and boycott. He went toe-to-toe with some of the greatest minds in the ancient world competing for the truth. In the words of Michelangelo, we need to criticize by creating. That doesn’t mean creating our own subculture. It means writing better books, producing better films, and starting better businesses. Here’s what I know for sure: you can’t be the hands and feet of Jesus if you’re sitting on the back of your lap. In too many instances, we’ve turned being a Jesus follower into a noun. Following Jesus is a verb. More specifically, an action verb.” And with every action or non action there is a risk.

Think of all that you would have missed in life if you would have played it safe. Now if you have played it safe you don’t know what you’ve missed. And you are risking not really living life to its fullest.

We are a family that has never played it safe and we have and are living a life of adventure. We have followed Jesus all over the US. It has been tough sometimes but it has been worth the risk. And we would have risked so much if we would have played it safe. Thanks, God for not letting us play it safe.

So how does this thought make a difference in what you do today?

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