![\"\"](\"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Take-a-Chance-242x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEvangelical Christians and Churches are seen as a fairly traditional conservative group, a group who holds fast to the past. As a group, they see value in stability and resist change. The new we like is often not new; but just a different way of doing the same thing. Look at how long it took us to adjust to anything but the King James Version of the Bible, new music forms, guitars and video screens in worship. We will not change is the basic approach of many churches and Christians.<\/p>\n
I mean after all what we do is Biblical, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
For many of us, our picture of following Jesus\u00a0includes a certain level of serenity, peacefulness, and certainty. Then I read the parable in Matthew 25:14 \u2013 30 and I wonder. In this parable, the master is leaving. He calls in three servants and gives them varying amounts of money to use at their discretion while he is gone. After returning, two of the servants have been able to increase what they were given. The third protected the money by burying it and returned the original amount. The first two, who had risked the Master\u2019s money, were rewarded and praised. The one who played it safe and protected it was punished. Strange!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I have a hard time with this story. It seems to me that the most prudent guy is the one that fails. The two who took a chance were praised.\u00a0I mean, I have my investments in the most conservative,\u00a0least risky funds.\u00a0I don\u2019t make all that much, but I am playing it safe. I am not going to lose it.\u00a0I am the epitome of the \u201cplay it safe\u201d guy. I applaud the fellow who hid it in the ground and returned the full amount to the master. He was wise. According to this parable, he was wrong. The guy, who took his money to the casino, risked it all and won, is the hero?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think Jesus was talking about money here.\u00a0What is the treasure each was entrusted with? The greatest treasure we are granted is life itself. Could it be that the message of the story is to follow Jesus you must be willing to take a risk? The one who played it safe did not gain God\u2019s approval. The two who took a risk did and succeeded. Was the success due to the monetary increase? Or was it the fact that they felt secure enough in the master that they were willing to risk it all?\u00a0It is a perplexing story. Were the two guys who made money good or lucky?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
We are not told about anyone who risked it and LOST.\u00a0 Maybe the lesson is when we are willing to risk it all for Jesus, there are no losers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Maybe Following Jesus is not about playing it safe but about being willing to risk it all?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u00a0<\/b><\/i>cling<\/b><\/u><\/i>\u00a0to your life, you will lose it; but if you\u00a0<\/b><\/i>give up<\/b><\/u><\/i>\u00a0your life for me, you will find it.\u00a0<\/b><\/i>(Matthew 10:39 NLT)\u00a0Did the one who hid his money \u201ccling\u201c to it and the two who increased their money \u201cgive up\u201d theirs?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Much of our following Jesus seems very humdrum. Maybe it is. Maybe Jesus wants us to \u201cinvest\u201d this life in ways that are risky. To take a risk on our security, status, image, safety, money, whatever it is you value. What would churches look like if they operated this way?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It seems as if the story of the \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d was all about taking risk also. He risked pain, hurt, time, money even his life for someone else. Maybe followers of Jesus should not always \u201cplay it safe\u201d. Maybe the risk is not on a thing but on a person. Jesus took a risk on 12, one betrayed him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Looking at Jesus\u2019 life and teachings can we really \u201cplay it safe\u201d and be a Follower of Jesus?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What do you hold on and protect? Where in your life have you been playing it safe?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Evangelical Christians and Churches are seen as a fairly traditional conservative group, a group who holds fast to the past. As a group, they see value in stability and resist change. The new we like is often not new; but just a different way of doing the same thing. Look at how long it took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}