About once a week, I call my friend Dale up to see if we can
have lunch. Dale is one of the ministers
at the church where I’m serving as an elder, so sometimes we talk serious and
sometimes we talk fun. On this
particular day, he suggested a new restaurant, a place called Firehouse Subs in
Beech Grove. (It’s pretty good, by the
way.) When I met him there, as he
sometimes does he had a couple of other guys with him, our youth minister and a
youth ministry summer intern. They got
there first and had ordered, so I got my food and sat down with them a few
minutes later.
I mentioned that sometimes we talk serious and sometimes we
talk fun. Well, a lot of the time we
talk fun about serious stuff. I suppose
it is a way to process through the heavier stuff in a way that helps us to keep
some perspective. This was one of those
days. A subject came up that had been
seriously discussed within our young adult group the night before, and we
started bantering it around. After a few
minutes, I turned to the youth ministry summer intern…a guy who has just
finished his first year of college…and asked him:
“So….., what about you?
What do you think we should do about this?”
He started to reply:
“Well, the safe thing would be…”
I interrupted him.
“I don’t want to do the safe thing,” I said. “I want to do the right thing. What do you think is the right thing to do?”
As I’m sitting here contemplating what I said to him, I am
realizing how ridiculous it was for me to say that. Not that it is the wrong thing to say. I believe it to be absolutely the right
approach. The problem is with ME saying
it. See, I’ve spent a large part of my
life in various situations settling for the “safe” thing. I am constantly playing it safe. I’m afraid to say it, but if I were one of
the three guys in Jesus’ parable about the talents (a measure of money) …I would have been the guy to
bury his…if you are unfamiliar with the story, that is not a good thing to
do. (See Matthew 25:14-30)
Basically, I tend to avoid conflict. I don’t take very many risks. My nephew says I “overthink” everything I
do. (I suppose he is usually right…but,
I’m not going to think about that too much.)
Sometimes I wonder how I’ve ever become so successful in my sales career
considering how much I dislike rejection.
Perhaps, it’s because I’m in a field where it doesn’t seem so personal
when it happens. Maybe? Or, maybe I've pushed myself to grow in that area. Maybe.
Anyway, this has been a battle for me much of my life. It took me forever to ask my wife out on our
first date…the fact is that I only ‘sort of’ asked her out when I actually did
get up the nerve. I have always
struggled with this desire to play it safe, but over the years I have gradually
grown to blow past my safety ropes and swim in the deep water once in a
while. I can tell you that it does get a
little scary out there, but I know that I need to do it to really get stuff
done.
Risk-takers are the ones who change things. They are the ones who make a difference.
I never really came to a conclusion as to the complete right
thing to do in my conversation this week.
I’m still working on that.
However, as I think about the concept of not just playing it safe, but
doing the right thing in general...well…
Should I say it?
It’s risky.
People might pay attention and notice.
Well…
I’m going to do my best to stick with doing the right thing. I’d like to make a difference, make some
positive change, and…
Playing it safe is for sissies! 
No comments:
Post a Comment