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They Embraced Danger
Brian Mashburn
April 20, 2008
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They Embraced Danger
Disciple: Master, please give me comfort and ease of life!
Master: No. As desperately as you believe you want it, you do not realize that you are asking for apathy and numbness.
Disciple: I do not understand? Did your servant Paul not say that the Kingdom is a matter of peace and joy?
Master: My servant Paul did say such a thing. Put his understanding of what brings about peace of heart and a joyful soul is far different than that of which you are asking. When I saved him from the error of his ways, I blessed him by showing him how much he would suffer for my name. It was a life of danger and persecution, necessary for life to the full.
Disciple: Lord, I want what you want! Please teach me!
Master: He who has an ear, let him hear. You were made for the peace and joy that comes from knowing with confidence that you are involved in the risky work of the Kingdom.
Disciple: How can walking into risk bring about peace and joy.
Master: Have you not heard that it was for the joy of it that I myself walked into the danger and suffering of the cross?
Disciple: Yes, but I do not understand it.
Master: Until you exert faith, beloved one, and walk with me into fear for my Name's sake, you will not. This understanding can not come to you academically.
Disciple: I live in a world that tells me that your goal for me in this life is comfort and safety! How is it that so many of the preachers and teachers in your church have not taught this?
Master: How, indeed. Many Christians with academic knowledge of me are warehoused safely away in churches all over the world, mindlessly affirmed in their passivity. But the movement I initiated, the one that is chronicled in the book of Acts, requires the risky embracing of awkwardness, fear, suffering, and danger.
Disciple: How do I connect to that movement, master?
Master: All you must be is willing. Reckless living is not what I call you to. Reckless faith, however, is. Trust and obey.