Wind

In I Kings 18 we find that God tells Elijah to present himself to King Ahab because He will finally send rain after a three year drought. Now for my money the best part of this passage is not Elijah, but is found in verse 3 which says "and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of his palace (Obadiah was a devout believe in the Lord.)"

Is there any doubt that the reign of Ahab and Jezebel was one of the most evil, ruthless and corrupt regimes in the history? The very next verse talks about how Jezebel was running around killing the Lord's prophets, yet here we have Obadiah, a devout believer, in the midst of such danger and such risk!

If you look throughout scripture you kind of see this pattern of risk and danger rather than safety:

• Abram left the comforts of his home in Ur
• Moses went back to Egypt
• David went with no armor to face the giant Goliath, the champion of champions in the Philistine army - he did this as a teenager!
• Daniel & his friends stood up to the Kings of Babylon as teenagers
• Prophets spoke out about the corrupt kings of Judah & Israel
• Jesus took his disciples, his young disciples, to places like the Decapolis & to see a demon possessed man in a grave yard!
• Stephen preached in front of an angry mob and was killed for it
• Paul risked shipwreck and stoning and beatings all for the name of Christ

If this is the pattern we see in scripture, if we see the followers of Christ sticking their necks out in the name of the Gospel then why are we content to play it safe? We loathe the idea of taking a risk, of being injured or being thrust into a dangerous situation, because it is not comfortable, not easy, or harm may come to us.

We do this to our kids as well. We keep them isolated from the dangers of the world, from the things that could harm them, cause them hurt or pain, we try to make the road easy for them and allow them to avoid hardship or danger so we can raise them as "good kids". In reality, we are not preparing them for real life and if we do this, we are raising weak kids. For we have not been called by God to play it safe. We have been called to be lights in the darkness and told by Jesus to not be surprised if people hate us - that is not a call to safety and comfort.

My wife told me the story this past week of the scientists who lived in the experiment called the Biosphere. The story was relayed to me that one of the things that failed in this experiment was that the trees were dying and despite their attempts they could not keep them alive. It turns out that the trees were dying because of their lack of exposure to wind. Trees, when they are young, need wind! The wind blows against them and as it pushes against them, it in turn makes them stronger, more solid, able to stand up against it as they grow and when it blows harder. How are we or how are our kids doing with no wind?

I am not suggesting we throw our kids to the wolves and not provide any parental guidance, but I am suggesting we allow our kids to explore, to test the waters, the engage the wind, to not play it safe all of the time. Sooner or later the wind, the trials, the danger will come into their lives and we as parents will not always be able to be there, they will need to stand on their own and at that point playing it safe won't be an option.

Developing risk takers who are not afraid of what wind will blow, what giants they may face or comfort zones they will abandon, because of the Christ we serve, what a great comfort that would be and there is nothing safer than love of Christ!