The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1)
During a conversation with a friend yesterday, we were recounting some of our skiing stories from childhood. I told the story of how brave (or stupid) I was when I learned to ski in Junior High. My parents paid to have my sister and I take ski lessons from the ski instructor at the slopes on Sugar Mountain in North Carolina. Being naive, we were much too cool to utilize the "pie technique" of stopping and instead opted to just ski straight down the mountain, taking out anyone or thing that dared to be in our path. Many years later, I took a youth group skiing in West Virginia and was scared to death as I slowly took my time going down a black diamond. What happened to me? Why was I not fearless and brave like I was back in 1986???
The same holds true for our Christian faith. We are don't enter into this relationship with Christ just to burrow ourselves into isolation and close out the rest of the outside world. We must live freely and fearlessly and even be willing to take risks. Too many Christians I know are just as scared as I was skiing down the black diamond and refuse to move outside of their comfort zones. They only socialize with like-minded people and their schedule only accommodates their small circle of friends from church. (Please don't misunderstand me; we absolutely LOVE our friends from church, but we have many other neighbors and friends that haven't set foot inside of a church during their adult life.) We need to live boldly and step outside what is comfortable to reach new people and share the love of Christ with others.
During this Christmas season, make time for someone that needs to know the peace, love, joy of a God that loves them.
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