The Rewards of Spiritual Risk Taking When we take a risk, we’re stretching beyond what we think are our limits in order to reach for a goal. Inevitably, that involves overcoming some sort of fear — fear of the unknown, of physical harm, of failure, of humiliation, even of success. And it involves adventure. When I was in college, a friend often lent me his Kawasaki motorcycle, which was primarily designed for off-road use. When I’d ride thirty miles an hour down the smooth residential streets toward campus, it was safe but boring. Wind whipped my hair but my heart didn’t quiver. However, when I’d go zipping off the road, through tall weeds, down twisting dirt trails, dodging trees and bushes, around boulders and up steep inclines — places where I was facing some risk — that was exciting. The same could be said for living a life of faith. It’s when we overcome our fears and take spiritual risks that we really experience the adventure of Christianity. Jesus said, in effect, that those who risk their whole life for him will find it, but those who hang on to their life — those who shrink back from risk — will be the losers. After all, faith and risk are intertwined. As we stretch our faith — as we increasingly follow Christ even when his wisdom collides head-on with the thinking of our culture — we’re taking calculated risks based on our conviction that God can be trusted. When we follow God’s teaching on honesty despite our fear that we’ll pay a price, when we ask God to open doors for us to make a difference in the lives of others despite our fear of the unknown, when we talk to someone about God despite our fear of embarrassment, when we follow the Holy Spirit’s nudgings despite our hesitancies — those are spiritual risks. Those are the times when we leave the boring residential street for the thrill of the unmarked trails. And we risk most when we pray. As a skeptic, I used to think that prayer was an empty exercise for weak-willed people who babbled into their folded hands because they were afraid to take any action on their own. Boy, was I wrong! When we come to the realization that there’s actually someone on the receiving end of our prayers — an omnipotent someone who wants us to grow and mature and develop and learn and become more and more like Jesus — then prayer becomes a great adventure. Then we’re blazing new trails. Then our heart quivers. | 
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