Have you ever risked your life for something?

Yes, you have!  Just getting out of bed in the morning is a risk!  We never know what our day will bring forth.

I think of the resent collapse of the condo building in South Florida – those people didn’t go to bed thinking, “Tonight, I’m going to meet my Maker!”  In another situation, a co-worker of mine was riding his motorcycle to work a few weeks back, obeying all the rules of the roads.  Someone ran a stop sign and t-boned him, breaking his jaw and an eye socket, detaching the retina in same eye, giving him a concussion and other scrapes and bruises on his body.  He did not wake up that morning thinking, “This is good day to have a wreck!”

We are not in control of what happens in our lives and, often, don’t even think that our day may contain great risk to life and limb.  When it happens, we must trust in the One who is working all things out for our good!  That is hard to do, but

 

 

 

 

The arrow that we hold in our hands

in the picture is one of the arrows that was pulled from Dave’s body.  In redecorating the lobby of our old building, or in our move to the tower location, this artifact was thrown out.  My co-worker rescued it before it hit the dumpster, and now it hangs in our maintenance office.  He thought it good to remember, to be reminded, of the risk and sacrifice that many have made to see the Gospel taken to the ends of the earth.  I agree!

How much risk are we willing to take to see the Gospel advanced to the ends of the earth?  As I contemplate the risk from our comfort zone here in the States, I am reminded of a quote by Jim Elliot.  He was a missionary martyred by the Auca Indians in Ecuador back in the early 1950’s.  On October 28, 1949 he wrote in his journel, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”