I nearly died that day. I was a young high school student driving a borrowed motorcycle for the first time with my friend riding at the back. We were cruising around the lake, feeling free as a bird. Before I knew it, the motorbike skidded in a soft part of the road. In the blink of an eye, I was down on the road. My friend was thrown in front of the bike, flat on his back. Long story short, we both survived, none the worst except for a bruised pride.
Risk-taking is part of life. We live knowing that we don’t control many of the things that happen around us. The best-laid plans of mice and men are just that, plans. Military strategists are all too aware that no plan survives contact with the enemy. We do not even know for sure what the weather will turn out to be this day.
Wise people try to order their lives to minimize risks. Planners prepare a Plan B just in case. Business leaders conduct risk assessments and simulate likely scenarios of the future. Stock market investors diversify their portfolio to spread risks. Farmers insure their crops from the threat brought about by natural calamities.
Amidst so many risks, the Bible warns us of a far more significant risk. That is, the risk of dying without being sure of the fate of our souls. Jesus says, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:3). We can mitigate all the risks in this world, but fail to anticipate our souls' far greater risk.
Jesus knows that a person may be so taken up with risk-proofing earthly things that he fails to see an infinitely more dangerous risk. Until it’s too late. But the good news is that there is a way to eliminate the risk of eternally losing our souls. Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). May you seek to understand fully what those words mean.
Failure to do so is to ignore the most significant risk we face in life.
Older
Top
