If the stakes are high enough, just about anyone will do just about anything at just about any given time. How else can you explain why people do such foolish things? Or such difficult things? Or such risky things?
If a person is hungry enough, he will go to great lengths, take tremendous risks, even be willing to break the law in order to find food.
Why would a person get up before dawn, pull on her shoes, a T-shirt and a pair of shorts to go jogging?
Why would a person stay up late studying when it would be so much easier to eat ice cream while watching Match of the Day?
People have to want something pretty badly to endure physical or mental distress to get it. They have to value something more highly than comfort.
This is why people get up early, stay up late, put in the extra effort, go without. There is something for which they are willing to pay a price. If it is something desirable enough, they are willing to pay a very steep price, and they do so gladly.
Why? Because the stakes are high enough.
It seems silly, laughable even, that people are willing to make such great sacrifices and pay such high prices to do things like climb mountains or run races when we are simultaneously unwilling to do much of anything to claim the abundant life God has made available for us. God offers us a life of freedom, a life of adventure, a life of security, a life with no regret or anxiety. Will there be pain involved? Of course! But anything worthwhile is costly. If you devote yourself to the relentless pursuit of whatever God has in store for you, it will require huge risk and an alarming level of sacrifice.
What in the world could motivate the Israelites to step into a rushing river? Why would they be willing to march around the fortified walls of a hostile enemy city with nothing but trumpets in their hands?
What in the world could motivate people to give money away when it would be easier to spend it on themselves? What would cause a person to get up early and volunteer to help someone they’ve never met? What inspires people to forgive, to serve, to turn the other cheek, to sell everything and move halfway around the world to dig wells or teach children to read?
Maybe we’ve come to a place where we value our comfort and security more than we really value the calling of God in our lives. But we don’t have to stay here. In fact, we cannot stay here and go with God over the difficult barrier into the land of His promise.
God, I ask that I would experience a growing desire for You and for the things You declare to be important. I also ask that this living desire would express itself in an ever-increasing willingness to take the risks of faith so that I would honour You by treasuring Your will for my life. I want to discipline myself for the sake of Christlikeness so that I will run the holy race with endurance and fight the good fight in Your strength. I acknowledge that this life is no game, that the stakes are eternal. I recognize that there is a cost of discipleship and that spiritual formation does not come naturally. May I be dependent on Your promises and provision so that I will honour You through the risks and price of obedience.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
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