Risky Business

   When I read a little blurb in this day's morning devotional, I thought back to our little Alabama tour last week. A lot of the pictures that I took were devoted to history, as is my bent, and some of these scenes came to mind as I looked back.

   When I think about history, I think about people who took a risk.

   The devotional thought for today concerned "going out on a limb for God", taking a risk to follow His path and walk in His steps.

   I confess that I am not much of a risk-taker. I tend to weigh the alternatives and then take a safe way, but is that the way I am supposed to live? Where is the trust in all of that?

   There are a lot of monuments all over the south, dedicated to the ones who fought in the Civil War. I think about this man who is buried in a small cemetery behind an old Episcopal Church in Union Springs, Alabama.

   The people who buried him did not even know who he was, and, perhaps his family, if he had one, did not know what had become of him after he marched off to war. Did he die close by? Was he being cared for in this place, being brought here from somewhere else? The answers are not on the gravestone, but he took a risk.

   How about the folks who built and ran this old theatre in Centerville?

   They took a risk, as well as those who took the old building and started an antique store.

   One more example from this tour, in Midway, Alabama there is an old school building, built for the education of black children in 1922, The Merritt School. A risky venture in a climate that did not foster tolerance for people of color in the middle years of the 20th century.

   As I look back through all of this history, I see folks who stepped out and risked everything for something that they deemed worthwhile.

   Then I have to ask myself, "what have I missed by not taking the risks that God has placed in my life"?

   Am I willing to do so in these latter years?

   What does it show about my trust in the One whom I want to control my life?