Last week I attended a leadership conference from Willow Creek. Good speakers, and great materials. One of the guys at the conference (the Rwanda Investigator) told a story about growing up when he was about 10. His dad took him and his 2 brothers to Mt. Rainier. They were at the visitor center and were planning to climb to the base camp level. Pretty strenuous and a little scary. The guy, (Craig) was a little scared. Then he saw the sign that warned about the danger of going further, etc. and he really got scared. What if he couldn’t make it? What if he fell? His brothers would laugh and ridicule him. It was cold, and would get colder as they climbed. So he, told his dad, that he thought it would be “boring” (he couldn’t say he was scared) and he stayed at the visitor center while they made the climb. He sat around the visitor center for a few hours, it was nice and warm, but after a while it became stuffy; the loop videos got old, and he found himself wishing he had gone on the adventure, even though it was a little scary. When his dad and brothers got back, they were “flushed” with the excitement and thrill of making the climb, seeing the views, etc. Craig knew he had “missed out” and regretted not taking the chance and getting in a “cowboy up” stance, getting past the fear and going for it.
He told that story to relate to us, how we should not “do the safe thing” all the time. That we should make bold moves as God leads us, take chances and go for the gold!
So that as we reach the end of our life here, we don’t look back with regret about the things we never did, and the chances we never took for God.
I hope I always have an adventurous attitude and never get into a “prevent defense”.
I know how those prevent defenses always work out for the RedSkins!