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We all face risks
in this life, some by choice, some by
chance.
A soldier or police
officer or innocent passerby turns his
head
a split
second before a bullet whizzes
harmlessly by.
A suddenly single
mother gets someone to watch the baby as
she
goes to the
courthouse and files for divorce.
and then goes into
hiding, afraid of the future.
A minister counsels
the distraught husband to
“Give
her another chance” but then learns
from the
newspaper next week
of
the possible murder and suicide ……
A father trusts in
his understanding of finances
and
invests heavily in the stock market
or in a third
oil well site with good seismic
readings,
risking it all as my grandfather did……
A night stock clerk
tells his supervisor of
a
co-workers theft of company goods last
night…..
A CEO gambles his
career and the future of all his
employees
by
remodeling the factory with hi-tech
machinery.
A lonely teen
struggles with love and truth and
chastity and
the
ugly reality of fears, manipulation and
deceit……
A wife swallows her
fears and leaves her extended family to
moves
cross country with four young children
to a
cold clime
without friends to be with her husband,
who
chose to take a new position in a
distant land…..
I’ve heard the
bullets whipping by at supersonic speed,
and sat
helplessly as the Huey pilots dove and
twisted
to the left and
then to the right and up and down,
successfully gambling with his life and
mine……
I’ve held another’s
life in my gun sight while ordering him
to
get out
of the stolen car he was driving
moments after he
rammed it into my patrol car…..
He
chose not to reach for the toy Derringer
on the seat.
I’ve prayed while
chasing down a gasoline tanker, driving
on a sea of gas
with
four studded snow tires that
miraculously didn’t catch fire.
I’ve survived
decades of risk-choices and heartaches
and
victories and defeats both great and
small……
And I’ve lost a
daughter who won’t even call me on
Father’s Day
or
acknowledge my existence or decades of
care and support.
But when I look
back over the past three decades
since I
accepted the offer He made when I was
rebellious,
When God offered me
the risk of life with Him at the helm,
when I
wondered at that blank wall in space and
the open door
He’d just brought me through,
when
He showed me all of the filth and
stinking garbage
of the world on the other side of the
threshold…
And as I now look
back at what my life was like back then,
before Christ
knocked on the door of my life,
and at what has
happened since……….
I wonder anew at
God’s plans, of His ability to turn the
worst storm
into
the most beautiful blessing, the ugliest
argument
into tears of
repentance and peace……
The Holocaust into
worldwide empathy for His Chosen Race,
the
rebirth of a nation in a single day…..
just as He said….
And I look at
the risks everyone in the Mid-East
faces,
every day life risk-choices….. just as
He said….
Have you ever
risked it all and felt so abandoned, so
alone on a vast sea,
struggling to stay afloat with the
circumstances of life,
paralyzed with
fear, exhausted, so adrift and utterly
alone
with
absolutely no hope of rescue?
Isn’t that what
life is like for those who don’t love
and fear God,
who
haven’t accepted His Challenge of
risking life
with His Holy
Spirit as our Pilot and internal Cop,
who
have no sure foundation of right or
wrong
or standard or ethics or integrity in
life?
It is such a
comfort to know that I’m the child of
the King,
that
nothing can touch me unless like Job,
it first passes
by His throne and gains His approval.
There’s abundant
hope and joy and peace in my life, even
amidst the
arguments and risks and thorns and
storms….
We all face risks
every day, some by choice, some trivial,
some gigantic.
Even
driving to church risks others running
stop lights…...
But I’d much rather
face His challenges than life without
Him,
of guessing what
God wants out of any particular storm,
of trying to
find His will and His way with
anticipation
by
seeking the guidance of His Holy Spirit
in truth
as He invades the circumstances of my
life…
I’d much rather
gamble with God, with the sure knowledge
that
He’ll forgive my
mistakes and failures and shortcomings,
the times I
failed to seek or listen or obey….
Risking
God’s path is dangerously safe. We know
He wins.
No stock market
gain
or
lovemaking with my spouse
or rapturous
music
or
mountaintop success
could ever compare
with
The challenge of
knowing Him, the thrill of risking my
life for Him,
of
receiving the sweet guidance of His Holy
Spirit,
aware of His
Presence as my Redeemer and Savior,
watching in awe as my risk choices and
His Plans
harmonize in my
clients and friends and children….
Everything else pales in comparison.
And soon, oh so
sorrowfully soon, I think I’ll hear Him
say,
“Steve,
you really did well! You listened and
you learned,
and
you guided many others to My path and My
door!
Enter into My joy as your Master!”
It’s been
a challenge to write this poem trying to
steer everyone toward Home,
To focus on what
will really be the central theme for
eternity,
The worship and
praise of Christ, our Lord, who is in
Heaven and earth adored
For while down here
this life He tread and for us all His
blood He shed,
But ne’er turned
away from God’s true call, He knew His
goal, He risked it all
So when our storms
and strife arise we’re safe to risk His
sure Sonrise.
And sure of this, I
choose to chance my life, my love, my
worktime dance
To see if I can
clearly be a mirror of His integrity
So at that final
curtain call I’ll know for sure I risked
it all.
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