The Value of Risk in a Risk-Averse Culture
When I was in high school, my Dad encouraged me to pursue a career in financial planning. I really did like the idea of helping people get out of debt, invest wisely, and build wealth. But the career I really wanted was in law enforcement. While my Dad wanted me safely behind a desk from 8-5, I wanted the freedom of keeping the peace in a roaming patrol car at all hours of the night.
I’ve learned over the last several years that I’m a bit of a closet adrenaline junky, and thrive in stressful or risk-inherent environments. But I’ve also learned that this is not necessarily the norm for our culture.
I was raised on books such as T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and all sorts of fantastical stories of heroes daring to risk everything for the sake of another. But where are these stories in real life? Are we content to repetitively continue to portray the selfish side of humanity through endless reality TV shows? Where have all the heroes gone? A risk-averse culture stifles creativity, rewards the status quo, and impedes growth. Why? Because it is safer and it is guaranteed not to cost you anything.
C.S. Lewis once explained his fascination with the Bible as “the one fantasy story that is actually true.” It is replete with daring sacrifice in the face of betrayal, and “putting it all on the line” for the sake of another. Who is the hero of every single one of these stories?
Jesus.
Mark Driscoll describes the success of the TV show 24 like this:
“… the show is a hit because Jack Bauer is a “type-ish” of Jesus. The trailer repeatedly says that Jack “must be sacrificed” to save the multitudes who will supposedly be given life through his substitionary death. Does this sound like anyone you know? A young, healthy, innocent guy dies for a whole bunch of people and willingly lays down his life as a sacrifice for them?”
But why does Jesus risk everything? What gain is there to risk when said risk was never asked for? What possible reason could there be to give up safety and the status quo?
Radical love.
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5: 25-27)
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (John 15:9)
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Christians are called to live this same radical love every day, yet many in our culture and the church idolize safety and spurn risk. It’s everywhere. Families move out of the city to raise children for fear of crime harming them. Here in St. Louis, I know a few people who drive over 2 hours each way so they can work in the city but live in the suburbs.
Tim Keller, in reference to church planting has said, “Some of the most heart-breaking church plant failures involved folks who simply would not follow this incarnational principle. Jesus didn’t commute from heaven every day, he moved in!”
Hebrews 11 gives us a kind of “Hall of Fame” of biblical people who have risked everything to follow God. The phrase “by faith” begins 18 verses in this chapter, each one describing a different person (from Abel to Abraham and Noah to Moses) and the risk they took in following God.
Both our culture and our church desperately need to regain the value of risk. We must re-learn that risk encourages the human heart to dare to be great. Jesus understood this when he told his disciples that they must leave everything to follow him. And they risked everything in doing so, but the risk was not without reward! We risk much in our everyday lives to love others, and sometimes it costs is greatly. But always we have greatness waiting for us in the here and now, as well as our lives to come.
And that is a risk that we desperately need to be willing to take.
I left Christianity mainly because I became convinced that the Bible is mostly Fantasy, and as oppossed to Clive Staples, a Fantasy just like many others. How risky would you say this behavior is?
Oh I’d say that qualifies as risky. Risk alone accomplishes little. Some risk could be outright stupid, while other types courageous. The difference is in the purpose.
Love.
Truth.
Selfless Service.
Sacrifice.
The list could go on. In your case, I would applaud you for taking the courage to investigate your own beliefs. While I wish you had reached a different conclusion (join us Reformed Christians on the dark side!), I also wish that many Christians would take a hard look at their own beliefs and whether or not they are living in light of them.
Brad, I echo so much of what you’ve written here - I guess I’m still trying to work through how to take “risk” and what being “wise” means. I find myself pursuing “good stewardship” and “wisdom” and sustainability more and more as I get older, and my life seems to contain less and less risks. I think you probably can take risks whilst living in the ‘burbs but I’m not sure how yet - maybe it’s in the way we relate to our neighbours (usually I never even know mine).
Keep taking the risks.
Thanks Duncan. Yeah, it is a fine line to walk. We no doubt need to incorporate the experience and wisdom of our elders. I think that we do need to have a balance that incorporates the lessons learned of other generations, but also be allowed to learn new lessons at the risk of making mistakes.
I think PART of the irrelevancy of the church to our post-Christian culture is because we have relied on lessons learned so much that we have not adapted to the changing culture. In short, we have been afraid to learn new lessons.
I’m sayin. Look at Beowulf.
Okay, a legend. Legendary, even. but, for real, sometimes I think, we need us some swords and some dragons. And we need us some shield maidens. and we need us some people throwing spears. Some Trojan Women who will fight back against their captors.
Or at least people willing to face the realm of the unknown.
At least once a day, I think to myself, what is keeping me from doing A B C D? Almost always it comes to my fear of the IDEA of breaking some rule, rather than actual considering the consequences. I’m sure this has probably always been the norm, but I look to my idols because they said “damn the rules, this needs to be done.”
Ghandi, Gandalf, Elizabeth I, Thomas Paine, Salman Rushdie, Emma Goldman, Helen Keller. These people envisioned a new world and took the reins of history in their own hands. That is a risk I admire.