Taking Inspired Risks

by Tyler Cook

Something that has recently made a big impact on me is a phrase coined by the late John Wimber.  He would say that “faith is spelled R-I-S-K.”  This drove me to begin thinking about the level of risk I was taking in my walk with God. 

Now I don’t believe that faith consists entirely in the number of risks that we take, but I do think that it’s a primary factor in deepening our trust in God.  The greater the risks we take, the greater our faith will be impacted when God meets us in those places of abandonment.  Unfortunately, fear so often robs us of these divine encounters, as we seek to meet our own needs through our own means void of relying upon the provision of God.

Man’s natural pursuit tends towards gaining more comfort, fame, honor, and physical pleasure.  But as we gain more and more of these things our requirement for God becomes less and less necessary.  Jesus calls us to a different pursuit.  He understands the dynamics of the human heart, and calls us to live in a way that is sometimes painful to our flesh and difficult for our natural mind to understand.  He is calling us to deeper levels of fulfillment and satisfaction that can only be found in full reliance upon God.  
Before we get too far let me breakdown what this concept of inspired risk is.  Dictionary.com defines both words as follows:

              Inspire: to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence
              Risk: exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous chance

So, inspired risk is being influenced to expose yourself to a dangerous chance.  At first glance, the impression of inspired risk seems foolish.  Why would anyone allow someone or something else to influence them to be exposed to a threatening or dangerous situation?  When viewed from the negative conclusions of risk, this notion can only be harmful.  Unfortunately, that is where a vast majority of the westernized Christian community exists. 

When facing a situation that appears risky, our instant reaction is to run in the opposite direction.  Now, before you think I am ganging up on the western Church, let me remind you that I am a part of it!  I have chosen to write on this topic because I understand and sympathize with this risk avoidance mentality.  

But what would happen if we shifted our focus from the negative results of risk to the positive potential outcomes of taking a leap of faith?  Notice I did not say to forget the negative results of risk but instead to shift our primary focus from the danger of making a decision, to the blessing that may await our choice to move in faith.  As the saying goes, “no risk, no reward . . . high risk, high reward.”