Playing Not To Lose

The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. -- Proverbs 28:1 NIV

Back in the first week of the college football season in 2007, a tiny school called Appalachian State took a trip from North Carolina up to Michigan to play the traditional powerhouse, the Michigan Wolverines. Often when a small school does this, they go simply because it's a really great payday for their school. They know they have no chance of winning. They play not to lose...too badly. Big schools often use very conservative gameplans for these games, not wanting to show anything fancy they may be saving for more worth opponents. They play not to lose the game and to get some work for their backups. Appy State, though, is a very successful lower division school. They have a tradition of winning just like Michigan. They didn't show up just for the paycheck. They showed up to compete. Somebody might have told Michigan!

Appy State took the lead early and built a big lead by halftime, only to see it disappear. Most teams would pack it in at this point, taking the moral victory (and the huge paycheck), and getting down the road. But these underdogs would have none of it. They blocked a Michigan field goal to hold their deficit at one and then proceeded to go on a drive that would make John Elway proud and got a field goal of their own to take a 34-32 lead with 26 seconds left. Michigan responded with a huge pass play, putting them just a 37-yard field goal away from victory with 6 seconds left. Again, most little guys would have prayed for a miss but expect a make and would take that moral victory and go. But our fierce underdogs would again have none of it. As the ball left the Michigan kicker's foot, Corey Lynch got a hand on it blocking it and returned the ball most of the way down the field to seal the victory. ASU receiver Dexter Jackson described it as "David versus Goliath". No sub-division team had ever beaten a ranked D1 school. Totally unheard of and for good reason.

They could have played it safe, but they didn't. When adversity struck, they could have packed it in, but they didn't. When they thought they had overcome and earned the victory, they quickly found their hopes being dashed again. They didn't quit when we all would have been OK with it. They did something nobody, except them, thought was possible.

We were not created to play it safe. God has no need to play it safe because He knows how the story ends. If we are created in His image, then how could it be that we are meant for the boringly safe lives most of us live? The proverb above actually goes so far as to say that we're wicked for fleeing (or cowering safely) when there is no one pursuing and then tells us the righteous are as bold as lions.

Lions don't play it safe. When lions go on the hunt they stay on the hunt until they catch their prey, and they don't just stop after wounding their prey. They stay with it until victory is achieved. Their survival depends upon it!

Would it be a stretch to imagine that our survival depends on us being bold like lions? Is it possible, do you suppose, that only fully devoted follower's of Christ receive the gift of eternity and that we aren't really fully devoted if we refuse to take risks? I may have never considered the thought until recently, but I have to tell you that I'm finding it hard to believe otherwise. Think of the story of the talents that Jesus tells in Matthew 25. The servant who refused to risk what his master had given him is called wicked and lazy! The servant's who took action with what they were given, who risked it all to gain more, were rewarded.

I had always looked at that passage and felt for the servant who played it safe. After all, to be responsible and safe is admirable...right? To risk in win is great, but what if you risk and lose? Better to pack it in and take care of what was given you sounds pretty good. After really focusing on reading the Bible daily and reading through all of it in 90 days (hard to do, but highly recommended), that passage really strikes me differently and a couple of lines in particular seem to me like Jesus is sending a clear message to those of us who would dare to play it safe with our souls.

First, the master tells the first servant:
'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

I know I want very, very much to hear our Lord Jesus Christ say those words to me one of these days!!! So maybe taking risks is good when God is calling us to take it...but what happened to the last servant who played it safe???

At the end of the story, the master says:
'And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

The word darkness and the phrase 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' are not so subtle references to Hell. In my mind, message received. Play it safe with what God has given me...my talents, my finances, my time, my loved ones, my health...whatever it is results in Hell. Taking the risks He has called me to take and fully trusting Him to provide for me...Heaven.

Look, not every situation that carries risk throughout the course of your life is going to be God calling you. I don't have the magic formula to help you (or me) figure that out. But I do believe that when it's God you will be given plenty of indication and multiple opportunities to figure it out. Part of our faith, and quite possibly the critical component, is believing God for the impossible and the improbable. God will ask you to take risks and trust Him which means you can't play it safe all of the time and be obedient. I say it's better to take a risk and be wrong occasionally than to risk nothing and lose it all.