Living Dangerously

Standing on the rock, looking down over an expanse of water. Deep enough to swallow up a tank, my body is saying, don't do it, you're going to die, my head is saying, thousands of people have done it and survivied, you've seen them with your own eyes. But from 20 metres the water looks small and I'm not convinced. My survival instinct is still saying no.

On encouragement from the onlookers I jump, as I do so, I lose control, I'm not in contact with anything, only suddenly, at the mercy of gravity. My heart is in my mouth and I can't believe I listened to those people because I literally panic. But I can't do anything.

I start to fall, the water is coming closer, I lock my hands to my side, make my body dead straight, and forget to stretch my feet. I enter the water, the shock is large, but as I rise to the surface I do a double and all systems are fine except for a mild sting on the soles of my feet.

That experience taught me a lot and it's not unlike the experiences Christians go through every day. The reason why jumping off a rock into the water is so difficult is because you have to relinquish control to an “unknown”. In other words, you have to say, I'm going to put myself in a position where I can no longer control the outcome – and that is exactly what dangers entails. Something is dangerous when the outcome is not guaranteed. When there is a chance that things might not turn out the way they should – it does not matter in this regard what the statistics tell us, it is what our natural instincts tell us that is far more important. Humans are programmed to survive, programmed to preserve life. One of the ways in which this is demonstrated is in that we have a natural instinct to react against situations where the outcome is not guaranteed. Those butterflies which we get when we're asking that girl out, or the butterflies we get when we're asking for a raise... when we're taking some real risks.

Now, you might ask, what has this got to do with the Christian life? Well, faith is, by it's definition, dangerous. Hebrews says that “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. The key word here is “do not see”. If we cannot see something, it is unknown, and however hard we may try, we cannot bring ourselves to behave as if we can see it. This is part of being human. When I am faced with a choice... to do the thing I want to do, or to do the thing God wants me to do, I can either go with the known – i.e. My choice, or I can go with the unknown, God's choice. I cannot see God and therefore cannot see what will happen if I go with his choice. I cannot see the outcome. I am effectively relinquishing control at that point – I am jumping off that rock.

To see the christian life as a life which does not do certain things is only making the glass half full. That is in fact, the easy part. The christian life is a life of faith, and faith means taking risks – taking actions for which we are not sure of the outcome and for which there is no “undo”. The big difference between the rock jump and christian life is that in the christian life, actions have on going consequences. The rock jump is a discrete event, but talking to my work colleague about Jesus is far from discrete. I have set a precedent that will change the situation forever.

And we need to get used to these kinds of situations, because that is what the christian life is about. We should expect this kind of danger, because if we do, we will not be surprised when they come along. They should not be occasional or once off – these kinds of encounters need to become the norm for the christian. Take any example of a biblical hero from the old testament or new and you'll see what I mean.

Being a christian is the quintessential extreme sport, it is dangerous living at its most dangerous.