Skip to main content

Risk-taking Mission and Service - Five Practices No. 4

Risk-taking?  Me??

definitely not me!

I don't think so.  No heroic stories here of trekking through jungles to bring medical aid, or smuggling Bibles into hostile countries, or mentoring malnourished children in a deprived inner-city area.

The idea of taking risks reminded me of some thoughts I had about the story of Ruth.  Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi, and Naomi's family had moved from Judah to Moab to escape famine. (This is way back in Old Testament times, you understand - probably about 1300 BC.)  Naomi's two sons had married local women, and everything was going fine, when suddenly Naomi's husband and both sons died, within a fairly short space of time.  Naomi, understandably, was heartbroken, and decided to return to her homeland.  Both daughters-in-law accompanied her a short way, but Orpah went home, while Ruth followed Naomi, pledging her devotion in a famous speech ("your people will be my people, and your God my God").

Most talks you hear about Ruth emphasise how difficult this must have been for her - leaving her home country and family, going to an unknown land - how brave! how dedicated! how selfless!

Study for Ruth Gathering Wheat by Edwin Long

But, you know, some decisions almost make themselves.  They might look brave and dedicated on the outside, but they don't feel like that on the inside.  When I met Graham, we lived in the same city for a few months, and then he announced he had just been offered a job in Texas.  The next stage of our relationship was mostly conducted by trans-Atlantic phone call, but when he proposed and I decided to move out and join him, it simply felt like the obvious thing to do.

Looking back, I can totally understand why some of my friends were a little concerned.  And of course, it wasn't entirely easy.  Graham still occasionally teases me about the fact that when the plane landed,  I was crying about leaving my housemate's pet rabbit!  Not to mention the housemate herself, with whom I had shared a house for five years - I would return to the UK at Christmas to celebrate her wedding, too.  But the decision itself didn't feel like a big risky leap into the unknown.  It felt like the next step on the path.  Maybe it was like that for Ruth, too.

gratuitous wedding photo

So risk-taking is a funny concept.  Something can look risky but not feel it.  Or it may feel like a huge risk, but to other people it seems like nothing.  Robert Schnase starts his chapter with the story of a couple who became curious about where all the homeless people went to.  After some enquiry they found out that they tended to congregate under a certain highway bridge, so the couple went there and started a monthly worship service.

Schnase uses this as an example of risk-taking mission - and from the outside, it certainly is.  But I can imagine that for the couple involved, it may have just been the next obvious step to take.

Further on, Schnase asks us to consider the question, "What have I done that I would not have done if it were not for my relationship with Christ?"  That's an interesting one when you've been a Christian all your life!  Most of these opportunities came through church or a Christian organisation, but I honestly don't know if I would have looked for similar ways to volunteer if I wasn't a Christian, or just not thought about it at all.  When I look back over my life, I have:

  • Visited a church in Romania to help with their summer holiday activities
  • Sat at Bristol bus station to welcome international students to the university
  • Volunteered at a group for teenage mothers
  • Run a cooking club based around Christian festivals for primary school children
  • Attempted to teach Bible stories to 3- to 5-year-olds
  • Helped to lead a playgroup
  • Delivered cakes to elderly and isolated people over lockdown
  • Started volunteering at a debt clinic

So that's actually quite a lot of different people and activities - with a certain bias towards cooking and children, it seems - but while there were definitely some difficult moments in there, I don't recall any of those feeling risky.  Hopefully, despite that, they were helpful to the people involved, and communicated Jesus' love to some degree.

I guess where I'm trying to get to, is that it's easy to feel inadequate when we talk about risk-taking mission and service - or indeed any mission and service.  We assume we're not doing it properly if we haven't faced imprisonment, or gone to live with lepers, or something.

But maybe it's more about keeping our eyes and hearts open, and doing what seems like the obvious thing to do.  And who knows, we may find we've inadvertently taken some risks after all.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Supercars and Selfies on the South Coast

We drove south on a wet, wet Saturday in August. The windscreen wipers swished endlessly back and forth, as we debated whether it was worth stopping anywhere except for the overcrowded motorway services. By the time we reached Winchester, the wipers had subsided to an occasional flick across the screen. We decided to stop. Of course, as soon as we left the car park there was a brief shower, but we ducked into the City Mill, now a National Trust property. There was a large room full of the usual kind of displays about flour milling; a recently renovated garden; and downstairs, the mill race running at full tilt. The mill is built right across the River Itchen. Winchester City Mill garden The mill race Water wheel (awaiting renovation) We stayed dry as we explored further into Winchester. There was even some blue sky for our selfie by the cathedral! But as we walked back to the car the rain hit us like a hose on full blast. An overhanging building provided some slight shelter, but the wa
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading for Spiritual Formation 2023-24

I wasn't sure whether to read another set of theology books this year. Could the time I spend on it be better spent on something else? At what point does it become reading for the sake of it, without having much impact on my wider life? It's difficult to tell. However, as usual, I had a growing list of books I wanted to read. I do need to think about what I'm doing as well as what I'm reading, and I don't expect to continue this specific discipline indefinitely. But I decided there was space for at least one more year of Reading for Spiritual Formation. So, without further soul-searching: The Books. Three Mile an Hour God Kosuke Koyama Japanese theologians are few and far between; Christianity is still very much a niche religion in Japan. Kosuke Koyama was Japanese and appears to be both influential and accessible. Not every theologian is both! So I'm excited to read his recently republished book Three Mile an Hour God. It was originally written in 1979, and is
Post a Comment
Read more

National Forest Way: Calke Abbey to Ashby de la Zouch

All the best walking blogs have maps on. I finally figured out how to add a route map to mine. If I get time, I'll add them to the previous posts as well, so you can see where I went. So, here are the two walks which made up the next stretch of the NFW. Walk 1  I started from the National Trust property and walked along by the lake, up the hill by the deer park, and down to Staunton Harold reservoir - all very familiar. Calke village postbox featured a highland cow on top. Lake at Calke Abbey Herd of deer   A short stretch on the road took me to Dimminsdale, which was new to me. There are records of mining at the site from the 13th century until the end of the 19th century. It's incredible to think that people worked there for so many hundreds of years. Now it is a secluded landscape of still pools and shaggy trees. Dimminsdale   I crossed a small section of the Staunton Harold estate, then went up a private lane with some rather nice houses. My turning point was where the Nati
Post a Comment
Read more