An old song has been stuck in my head over the last day, causing great conviction and peace all at once. I often find myself in the throes of these dichotic emotions, so I’m quite comfortable living in such unusual tensions! The song that has been niggling in my brain is “Reckless Faith”, by Rick Cua. While the entire lyric is great, the piece that has lodged itself in my mind is “While others play it safe/ Give me reckless faith”. I love that. What if we all had a healthy dose of reckless faith? What if we were totally unafraid and refused to play it safe?
As followers of Jesus, we have absolutely nothing to fear. Ultimately, nothing on this earth can harm us. Even if we should die, the actual result is being rewarded with seeing Jesus and living forever in His presence. We should all be so fortunate to find ourselves with such a fate. Jesus warned us that our lives would not be easy once we decided to follow Him. Persecution, ridicule, and even death are real possibilities for those who endeavor to live for Christ (Mark 13:9-13). He suffered all this, and if our ultimate goal is to live a life that looks like His, we should not only expect these things but rejoice when they occur.
Still, the disturbing trend I see to today among Christians, at least in the Western world, is we are consumed with our own safety and comfort. We neglect ministering to people in certain parts of town because it is too far beyond the confines of our comfortable suburbia. Going to that part of town is dangerous, after all. We don’t have a reckless faith, we have a timid faith. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul stated that we have not been given a spirit of timidity, but rather one of boldness. Bold people tend to be a bit reckless. They stick their noses into places that might make us cringe. But this is the spirit that God has placed inside each of his followers.
Having a reckless faith, being obedient to God no matter what the cost, is where we will find the greatest safety and the most freedom. Living in harmony with our Creator and becoming the person we were created to be is poetry in its purest form. Living out loud, reckless and unafraid, is the only path to security. Living a casual and lukewarm life is to live at odds with the omnipotent God; that should be the place we most fear. There is no safety in earthly comforts; these will only lure us away from our Lord. Living fully alive, immersed in the mission of Christ, is the safest place on earth. Jump in. Be reckless. In Jesus, there is nothing to fear.