Reading Time: 3 minutes
There’s a fine line between thrilling and spilling, and that fine line was crystal clear yesterday as the B99 and I were pulled along behind a boat driven by a maniacal driver. Sydney, our precious 8 year-old who was apparently born without this keen danger gene, sat in my lap screaming, “This is AWESOME!!” at the top of her lungs while I struggled to 1) keep her in the tube, and 2) keep the skin on my face. Crazy how 20 mph feels like 20 Gs when you’re helplessly dangling about on a piece of inflated rubber that’s tethered to powerful watercraft. With all apologies to Lady GaGa, we felt like we were right on the Edge of Gory (I know it’s Edge of Glory, but we were being hurled towards imminent death, right? Gory makes sense now, yes?).
And I couldn’t stop smiling.
We have all been raised to avoid words like “reckless,” “danger,” and “breakneck.” Even the fact that some of you think I may be getting ready to spin those words in a positive way has you holding your breath. Face it, most of us don’t see any value in pushing the envelope and exploring the outer limits of what we know. Sure, we’re intrigued by the unknown, but often not enough to do what it might take to see it. So we settle. We become experts of the known, recipients of the usual, and masters of the ordinary.
But what about the new, the unusual, the extraordinary? The only way to those is through failure, and most of us don’t want to risk that. We play it safe, our cards held tightly to our chest as we place safe bet after safe bet in hopes that we’ll wear out our opponent by sheer monotony.
The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9 – NLT – emphasis added)
There are some things that we may want, but we will never get unless we’re willing to go all in. Sure, we all want strength from God – especially in the tougher times of life – but we’re never going to get the strength from God until we’ve done something first. We have to go to the edge.
Granted, Lady GaGa sings Edge of Glory about stuff that is anything but godly, but isn’t it amazing how the lyrics to the song show an understanding of this truth more than most of the people sitting in a pew weekly at 11?
It’s hard to feel the rush
To push the dangerous…
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment of truth
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge
The edge
The edge
The edge
The edge
The edge
The edge
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hanging on a moment with you
I’m on the edge with you
It seems that almost everyone else gets the “no risk, no reward” principle except the people who – if the word of God is true – really aren’t even risking anything more than their own comforts or preferences. Lady GaGa sings about it, professional athletes train by it, and entrepreneurs build fortunes on it. They all recognize that there is an uncomfortable element to moving toward the edge – “it’s hard to feel the rush, to push the dangerous” – and yet they are willing to feel that breathlessness in order to find new levels of “breathability.”
God is all about risks. He called Peter out of a solid boat onto stormy water, David away from safe sheep to fight a brutal giant, and Jesus from a heavenly throne to an earthly cross. Would He be expecting anything less from you and me? He calls each of us to the edge of glory, not so we can fall over it into love with some other person, but so that we can find the exhilaration that only comes on the other side of the risk, in a place where He waits to strengthen the hearts that are all in for Him and His glory.
Could we fail? Probably. Is failure painful? Undeniably. Is it the end? Most definitely not.
The kingdom of God is advanced through unbelievable risks taken by believing people in a believable God. Want a money-back guarantee? Buy a Snuggie. Want to change this culture for Christ? Get in, hold on, and hurl yourself to the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge.
His glory is on the other side.
