Playing It Safe Is No Way To Live

I’ll never forget the day I purchase my first boat; a 2004 Starcraft 22-foot deck boat with a 265 Mercruiser engine. It was beautiful and I was so proud of it. For the first two years after my boat was made, it managed to escape receiving any battle scars. No dings, nicks, or scratches until two years later.

It happened this way: I was approaching the dock more like a novice boater than an experienced sea captain and I got a little sideways. In an attempt to correct my course, I pulled back on the throttle, putting the boat into reverse. Instead of correcting my course, I exacerbated my poor nautical choice and caught the side of my boat on the corner of the slip. The result was a lovely twelve-inch-long scar on the pretty blue hull.

But I need to tell you the rest of the story. My boat didn’t receive any battle scars in the first two years of its life because it had never been in the water. Even though I bought the boat new, it sat on the dealer’s lot for two years before I purchased it; a 2004 model that I bought in 2006. I had only owned it for four weeks when my mishap took place. The reason it was able to go two years without getting any dings, nicks, or scratches is that it had never been used.

Life is to be lived, not to be placed into dry storage. What good is a boat on a trailer, a car in a garage, or an airplane in a hangar? A dry-docked boat won’t sink, a garaged car can’t leave you stranded by the road, and a plane on the ground can’t fall from the sky. These are all useful items, but only if they are used. When things are not used for what they were designed for, they have no purpose.

This goes for our lives as well.

The Bible teaches that each person has a purpose and significance in life, a consistent theme throughout its texts. One of my favorites on this topic is Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” If we are God’s workmanship this means we are not just products of chance or circumstance but rather the intentional creations of God. And his intent for us is to be useful; to do good, not just sit on a boat trailer or on a couch somewhere.

The writer of Ephesians 2:10, the Apostle Paul, knew a little bit about the battle scars that come from being useful. He was called to share the good news about Jesus’ life, resurrection, and return. His active engagement came with these dings, nicks, and scratches, just to name of few: thrown in prison; whipped more times than he could count; stoned once; shipwrecked three times; spent a night and a day adrift at sea; faced danger from rivers, robbers, his own people; danger in cities and deserts, and on the seas; danger from men who claimed to be believers but were not; experienced hunger and thirst; shivered in the cold without enough clothing to keep warm (2 Cor 11:23-27).

I must admit that I lamented over that scar on my boat for several days, beating myself up for being so foolish. But a few weeks later I was over it because I had made some wonderful memories on the water with my family and enjoyed the purpose for which my boat was made. As time went on I learned to embrace that scar as it reminded me of the risk I had taken to make use of the blessing God had given me.

We cannot fulfill God’s purpose if we don’t use the gifts He’s given us. You and I must get out there and live. We must answer God’s call on our lives to live as He intended. If we do so we will experience adventure, make memories, and fulfill God’s calling on our lives … and we’ll have the scars to prove it.

Play to win this week in the game that really counts!