Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

I’m curious what a safe or normal life looks or feels like.  I’ve never experienced it so I’m curious what it is like.  Since I was born I’ve never known normal.  My parents served in a faith based ministry and our income was dependent on God and the generosity of His people.  We had some lean times but we always were taken care of.  We never went on normal vacations yet we had supporters who sent us on vacations.  We had months were my parents weren’t receiving pay checks, yet we had more food than we could eat.  We never had the wealth of the world but we had love and excitement. 

My parents are still in a faith based ministry.  My brother and sister are not in vocational ministry but they are followers of Jesus and very active in their respective churches. But they live more normal lives then me. I was the crazy one who wasn’t satisfied with being a Coach/teacher or a businessman.  I had to live a life of reckless abandon.  What is wrong with me?  Is it a gene?  Is it a loose screw?  Or is it a call?

Sometimes I wonder what normal or safe feels like? I wonder what kind of harm I have allowed my family to endure? I wonder what it would be like to make a comfortable living and be active in my church as a layperson?  I wonder what it would be like to not risk?  I wonder what safe looks like?

What do you think?

I have always been a risk taker.  I don’t know if it is something I was born with or something I learned.  I wish I could say that all of my risks have paid off.  I wish I could say that half of my risks have paid off.  I wish I could tell you that even 10% have paid off.  But I don’t know if even a fraction of the risks I have taken have even been close to being successful.

I once heard former NHL great Wayne Gretzky say that you miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.  That is the way I live.  I don’t want to ever regret not trying.  The problem with taking risks is that it not only affects you but those you love.  I wish I knew when a risk was a good one verses a bad one–but that is why they call them risks.

Theodore Roosevelt said this:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

What do you think about taking risks?  Have you taken any risks lately?  Have they been worth it?

What do  you think?