You cannot live the life I lived and expect in old age to be without some form of physical discomfort, there are repercussions to an exuberantly lived youthful life. But I honestly pity those who spend their days of youth overly cautious, so that in old age they may hope to retain something they never truly had in the first place.
“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” (Prov. 16:9)
I personally believe that life should be lived to its fullest, without risks there are no rewards, but for many, failure is not an option that they care to consider, and so they do their best to remain in the form of security they have achieved, and there is very little that you can say to them that will change their mind.
A worldly truth for you, my friends, a rut is simply a grave open at both ends.
I did not understand fully what risk meant until I was shown Mark 16:15.
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
I have lost friends and family members, lost employment positions, denied myself all those things that my flesh, my old sinful nature craved, loved and lusted after. I do not know if suffering unto blood means the actual loss of that fluid that runs through our veins, but if it mean dying to self, that I have done, though poorly at times, as well.
I want to ask you this question, no matter what age you are today, do you still believe it is a risk to talk to others about whom it is you say you love and serve? If so, know this, all who came before you who serve the Lord have at times in their lives not faced that risk as well.
Myself included.
Too much to lose, and seemingly little to gain in doing so.
I have climbed the sides of cliffs, ran my motorcycles through the trees at top speed, got in my vehicles more than once with only change in my pocket and traveled hundreds of miles across the country, and a hundred other things that people might call foolish, with no fear. But there were times I would not speak of Him who gave His life for me because of the possible loss of things I might lose.
It is why these two verses are placed in these letters so often, one that speak of that rut, that grave open at both ends, of personal fear and reprisals. Of embarrassment, which can only honestly be called fear. The other of a life well lived, of risks taken, even to the loss of all, to blood, if called to.
“And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” (Job 2:4)
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)
If you can understand this truth, then contemplate it well, those who are secure and safe in Christ are never secure and safe in this world, nor should they ever expect to be.
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2nd Tim. 3:12)
You cannot have both the world and Christ, if you have opened your mouth and spoke of Him, you have taken a risk, and you must decide whether or not that risk is worth taking.
I will offer you this truth as well, it is the only way out of that rut of security that you may not even realize that you are in.
There are none who have been born again that will not face that fear, there are none who have been hid in Christ that even consider it a risk to do so. The price I am paying in this sunset of my life for the risks I took in my youth I do not regret, I would not have had it any other way. I saw that rut in my younger years and detested it, I went out and lived life.
Do not look at speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ as a risk, but instead as an honor and privilege, He is worth the loss of everything.
