When Safe Sucks

Safety is usually a good thing.  We like safe cars, safe airlines and safety locks on guns.  We seek safe investments, safe places to live and safe schools for our kids.  We seek more income because we believe it will make us more safe and secure.  We buy insurance in case the unexpected occurs.  We are constantly looking for ways to reduce risk, and that is usually a good thing.

There are times, however, when being safe is not a good thing, like when God is calling you to take a risk.  The Bible records that one Spring “at the time when kings go out to battle” King David stayed home in Jerusalem.  (2 Sam. 11:1).

Staying in Jerusalem was certainly the safe thing to do.  It was a lot less likely David would be run through with a spear or have his melon lopped off  in Jerusalem than on the battlefield, but it was “the time when kings go out to battle.”  It was a time for King David to take a risk and lead his people into battle.  It was his calling.  Instead  David played it safe by staying in Jerusalem, ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which led to horrible moral failings.

Hebrews 11 contains a list of heroes from the Bible, people who out of obedience to God did things like leaving the security of a home to go to a foreign land without knowing where they were going or what awaited them; or others who left a life of luxury in the Pharaoh’s court to be a deliverer to an oppressed people; or others still who shut the mouths of lions, willingly endured torture and suffered death.

The Bible celebrates these men and women as having achieved greatness in the eyes of God and men, but they would not have, and they would not have been remembered, had they not been risk-takers.  Had they not been willing to take a risk they would not have fulfilled their destiny.

Being safe is usually a good thing, except when God calls you to take a risk.  Then safe sucks. GS

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