Be Dangerous and Wise

We have a problem in America – we’re obsessed with staying safe.

I was travelling recently, and as I was heading out on the road, a friend of mine who meant well said to me, “be safe.” Well let me tell you something, I wish people would stop saying that.

I don’t want to be safe anymore. I want to be dangerous and wise.

So much of what we’ve been through in the past few years is a direct result of our infatuation with being safe. And oddly enough, it’s killing us.

It’s time for you and me to start being dangerous and wise. To be wise simply means to do what is right. And the fact is that doing what is right is going to be dangerous.

You might be persecuted. You might be fined. You could even be arrested. It’s dangerous, but it’s necessary, and it is what we as Christians are called to do.

At the core of this fanatical need to stay safe is the desire to minimize pain. We’re afraid of feeling pain, and the fear is paralyzing us as a nation.

But what’s so bad about pain? Pain is necessary. It’s a fact of life that’s unavoidable. And if we view it the right way, we’ll understand that pain has a purpose.

Pain is there to tell us things are not right. Something is wrong when we feel pain – and it demands our attention and action on our part.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus healed many lepers. And there’s an interesting fact about leprosy that I think applies to our situation today. You see, we often misunderstand what leprosy really was. When we think of leprosy, we imagine sores all over the body, skin flaking off, sick people in a great deal of pain.

But the truth is, as experts in the disease of leprosy will tell you, lepers actually lose the ability to feel pain – and the effects are disastrous. They injure themselves because they have no awareness of heat, sharp objects, anything that should cause pain.

We’ve become so concerned with avoiding pain that many of us are like spiritual lepers – numb to the pain of the world – because we do everything we can to stay safe.

But that’s not what God has called us to do. Our Lord Jesus told us plainly in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

We look forward to a future in which there is no pain, but in our current state, in this world, we aren’t to run from pain. We are to run toward those who are hurting, to reach out to the dying.

We are to be dangerous and wise.

Our nation was founded by men and women who did not chose safety; they intentionally chose danger and pain for the sake of something greater. And that started more than one hundred years before the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence.

The men and women who sailed on the Mayflower chose danger to start something great. And many of them died in the process. The Mayflower itself is a great reminder of our need to choose danger and wise action over safety.

A ship is safest in port, but it is meant to sail.

There is no greater example, of course, than Jesus Himself. He chose to endure the pain and suffering of the cross so that we could be free to live without fear and to follow Him and live dangerously and wisely.

So here’s my challenge to you. As you look at your life, what is the “why” in what you are doing? Are you trying to stay safe, to avoid pain at all costs? Or are you following God’s calling, rushing into danger for the sake of the dying?

Doing what is right is always wise. Contending with ideologies that threaten our God-given Freedoms is wise. But it is dangerous.

What does that look like for you? Does it mean you attend a school board meeting and speak up for the truth, defending parents’ right to decide their kid’s education? Does it mean you stand outside the abortion clinic to pray for young women who are going in to terminate a pregnancy?

Maybe it means you speak the truth of God’s Word at work or stand alongside those who are defending our rights to Faith and Freedom.

Whatever it is God is calling you to do, I challenge you to look to Christ to be reminded that He has overcome the world so that you can be courageous, dangerous, and wise.

By Rob McCoy

More information on Rob McCoy can be found here.