In the last two posts, I shared about my “spirituality of retreat” and my “spirituality of creativity”. Today I’d like to share about the “spirituality of risk.” In my sermon recently, I quoted Leonard Sweet:
I am part of the Church of the Out-of-Control. I once was a control junkie, but now am an Out-of-Control Disciple. I've given up my control to God. I trust and obey the Spirit. I've jumped off the fence. I've stepped over the line. I've pulled out all the stops. There's no turning back, looking around, slowing down, backing away, letting up, or shutting up.
Its life against the odds, outside the box, over the wall, the game of life played without goal lines other than “Thy will be done....” I am not here to please the dominant culture. I live to please my Lord and Savior …
I am finished with second-hand sensations, third-rate dreams, low-risk high-rise trades and goose-stepping, flag-waving crusades. I no longer live by and for anything but everything God-breathed, Christ-centered, and Spirit-driven. I can't be bought by any personalities or perks, positions or prizes …
My face is upward, my feet are forward, my eyes are focused, my way is cloudy, my knees are worn, my seat uncreased, my heart burdened, my spirit light, my road narrow, my mission wide. I won't be seduced by popularity, traduced by criticism, travestied by hypocrisy, or trivialized by mediocrity. I am organized religion's best friend and worst nightmare.
I won't back down, slow down, shut down, or let down until I'm preached out, teached out, healed out, or hauled out of God's mission in the world entrusted to members of the Church of the Out-of Control...to bind the confined, whether they're the downtrodden or the upscale, the overlooked or the underrepresented …
And then...it will be worth it all...to hear these words, the most precious words I can ever hear: “Well done, thou good and faithful...Out-of-Control Disciple."
Leonard says it all. My spirituality leads me to step out of the boat onto the water, even when I know I might just sink. I’ve loved hearing people's dreams at our church's Dream Gatherings because it has been setting my imagination on fire. God is leading us to step out in faith into a new reality God has in mind!
