Christians for risk: in love, in faith, in relationships

leaping fish heads up the ladder, unknowing what follows this next step - 49503 Z.I.P. code

The the right of center this freeze-frame taken from fall equinox at the Grand Rapids, Michigan fish ladder shows a coho salmon heading upstream during the annual spawning season. It makes a good illustration of the "theme music" for Christianity: risk, pressing beyond what is familiar and possibly free of conflict or uncertainties. The quotation about the duty of newspapers has also been adopted by leaders of church communities, as well, "To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable" (attributed to Finley Peter Dunne, 1902). But what does it mean to own this shaky side of Jesus-following?

strangers and friends sometimes swap places - but Jesus was friend to all

Faith is one of the pillars for spiritual growth, along with Hope and Love (charity; karitas). What all these have in common is the opportunity, or perhaps requirement, to step beyond the things that one is certain about, to take chances in being disappointed, injured, or worse. Stated inversely, without some risk to yourself and your beliefs can the faith, or hope, or love be true and authentic. By extension of the life told of the rabbi from Nazareth, if his divinity was a secret super-power and nothing was ever risked in the Temptation by Satan, or in the many public ministries, then can we truly say he was one of us mortals? Loving truly involves the risk of being hurt. Exercising faith truly involves the risk of being hurt or confused or daunted. Hoping truly involves the risk of your heart being broken. In this same spirit of chancing failure (in human eyes; not God's eyes, since forever and all ways you are loved), there is a delicate touch required when growing spiritually: not gripping too hard on the parts of The Way that you know best, but being willing to let go or let slip those things that first seemed to be absolute, tidy, streamlined verities. For as soon as you congratulated yourself for having things figured out, comprehending the wholeness of a teaching or commandment, that is the time that you have boxed yourself in. Understanding something infinite is too big for one person's experience to encompass. So the best way to develop spiritually is to seize upon bigger and better comprehension, but all the while remain vigilant and seeking after more and better ways to engage with Creation and the Creator.