God Is Not Safe

So there I am back at the skate park getting ready to drop in on the little side of the big bowl, picking the line that I am going to try, and I drop in, headed for my first huge backside turn down in the deep end of the bowl when I see this little 9 year old kid flying the opposite way headed right at me.  We lock eyes and we both freeze, carnage is inevitable.  Of course since I am like 6’1 and about 179 and little dude is about 3 feet tall and probably weighs about 60lbs soaking wet, this is not going to be good, especially for him.  BAAAAAMM!!!!!! We full on collide mid bowl, and little dude goes flipping through the air and lands on his side.  And there he lies, lifeless, and I am thinking “I KILLED THE LITTLE KID!”  Oh no this is not good.  So I run over pick him up and blood begins to gush from his head on to the cement of the park.  I start really getting scared, oh no I killed a little kid.  I lift him up and out of the bowl, to where now there are like 10 other skaters going “oh man, you killed the little kid.” 

 

They sit the kid down, I climb out of the bowl and the kids mom is now running across the skate park.  I am thinking “not good, over protective mom, not good at all.”  The little guy is sitting up, not crying but blood is gushing from his nose into what now looks like piles of spilled red paint.  Now the mom is freaking out, “you killed my kid!”  Next thing I know she gets on the phone to call her husband, little dudes dad, and says “quick get to the skate park Burke is bleeding everywhere, CLICK… and hangs up the phone.  Now I am like “oh no definitely not good, overprotective mom angry dad, not good.”  But the little dude is just chillin calm as can be. Little dude just says “its okay, I am fine, my nose just hurts, but things happen I will be okay.” 

 

It turns out the little guy is okay, just a bloody nose, a real bad bloody nose.  Little dude heads home and everybody gets back to skating as normal, but not me.  I am fully in shock.  My buddies are like “Yo, Zane, snap out of it, it wasn’t your fault and little dudes okay.”  Well okay or not, his fault or my fault, I just feel terrible, I almost killed a little kid.  One of the local kids who saw the whole thing just casually skates by and says, “it’s a skate park that stuff happens.  If you want to play it safe, stay at home and play X-Box.”

 

I realized that skate boarding is not a safe sport, and that is why I like it.  It’s dangerous, people get hurt.  I think too often in life we want a God that is safe.  I don’t think Jesus is safe.  His first followers (12 disciples) all lost their lives for following Jesus and telling people about Jesus’ message, well except for John he was just boiled in oil, happened to survive, and sentenced to the island of Patmos for the rest of his life.  Jesus call for us today, is not safe.  The reality though is that in America, most likely we will not lose our life for telling people about Jesus.  But at school, or in our circle of friends we may lose what it is to be cool.  Jesus says “whoever desires to save their life will lose their life, whoever desires to lose their life for my sake will find life.”  I think Jesus is talking about losing our cool.  Putting popularity aside, for the greater purpose of sharing Jesus.  You may get laughed at, called names, but whoever said that following Jesus would be safe.

 

Last thing is I want to share a quote from Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe.  It is when Lucy, the little girl, is going up to meet Aslan and it goes something like this…

 

            Lucy talking to the Beaves asks about Aslan, “is he a man?”

 

Beaver says “A man, He is the king of the woods, king of the beasts, Aslan is a Lion.”

 

            Lucy goes “oh, a Lion, I am nervous about meeting a lion, is he safe?”

 

            Beaver- “Oh no… he is not safe but He is good.”

 

Aslan is supposed to be a picture of Jesus, and Jesus isn’t always safe, but He is good and worthy of us to trust our entire lives with.

If you fail, will you try again?

So I was at the skate park the other day.  Now I have tried to drop in on the deep side of the bowl before and it turned out treacherous.  About a year ago tried droping the deep side and I basically dove off of a 12 foot ledge straight to my head.  It was not good.  Everybody was cheering me to drop, and then when dropped straight to my face, everybody was like “ohhhhhhh!”  Since then I have been freaked out to drop the deep side, or any side for that matter.  But the other day, there I am, I find myself standing on the deep side with my pastor yelling at me, just do it man!  This is what we always talk about “go all out for Jesus”, its all or nothing man.  And there is this little kid, like 8 years old, standing next to me saying “just go for it man it’s easy” as he drops in like it aint no thing.  My heart is pumping, half with fear ready to poop my pants, half with rage at this little grom for dropping in and making me look like a fool. 

 

So I finally hang my board over the edge and look over the edge of what seems to be a skyscraper.  I can hear my Pastor “just do it, go all out, no holding back…..stop being a Nancy and GO!”  I lean over throughing caution to the wind, I can feel the comfort of safety being left behind me, I am entering into a new place of unknown.  Fear that it may not turn out so hot runs through my whole body.  Wind rushing past me as I plumit to the bottom, AND I MAKE THE TRANSITION!!!!!!  Everybody standing around the bowl cheers!!!  Once is luck twice is stuck, I get up for number two, I drop and stick another one.  Booo yeah! I did it.

 

I realized, in this life we may fail.  And failure has paralyzed many people from ever truly living life.  We often live in fear of what others might think, fear of getting hurt, fear of being laughed at.  Maybe our fear comes because of past experiences past failures. 

I realized at the skatepark that even though we mail fail, we can try again.  Thomas Edison had over 1,000 failed attempts to create the lightbulb, but he never gave up.  Maybe you have been trying to overcome a certain area of sin in your life, but you have continued to fail.  Will you  continue to strive to live out God’s standard in your life.  Maybe you have tried to live out the Christian life and have failed.  Tried to be diligent in reading your Bible, but have fallen short.  Maybe you have tried to share the message of the gospel with your friend but they shut you down.  Will you continue to share.  After all Paul said that he labored and toiled, aka worked his booty off, to share the gospel.  But Paul said that he labored according to the power of Christ living in and through him. 

 

I realized that I may fail, it may be dangerous, difficult, scary, but just as I go all out in skateboarding I am going to go all out in my walk with God.  Go all out in sharing the greatest message of forgiveness and redemption with my friends.  I challenge you to do the same.