Risk vs. Reward Can't I have just Reward?

Real faith in God believes big but is willing to start small.  I have seen this countless times come true in my personal story and the stories of others I encounter or read about.  There are always opportunities to start small, an idea that will blossom over time, a chance to be willing to put the unnoticed work in.  But too few of us start there.

I was watching a story on the development of the “Go-Pro” camera this last week and this idea bounced out of the screen.  The creator had to be willing to start small, driving around in his van selling the first generation of cameras to local surf shops.   He had just come off of a failed internet startup that cost him millions of dollars of investor money.  But he still moved forward and took advantage of that failed forward progress.  That small idea has exploded into one of the best inventions this decade has seen.  A camera that is used by kids and professional’s alike and has changed the way we see the world.

But the success of “Go-Pro” today is not without it’s small beginnings.  So why do so many small beginnings result in a wasteland of dreams and faith?  I think it’s because we keep to tight of a hold on the past and let it become the definition of our future.  “Why should I put in the small work?”  “It will only result in what happened before!”  And that’s where we exchange our dreams with apathy.  Not willing to risk again, not willing to fail again, not willing to try again and a dream dies!

Yet the needs of our lives continue to press on us.  Like pain keeping a mortally wounded personal alive the pressure of our greatest needs keeps us from totally ignoring dreams of a better future.  Our needs press us to keep on dreaming.  Dreaming itself is not risky, it’s putting that dream into the world; that is risky and the bigger the dream the bigger the risk.  The bigger the need the bigger the need for a bigger dream!  And at some point you will be required to dream so big that only God can cause it to come to pass.

If you have not dreamed that big before I challenge you to let yourself go there!  Let your dream be so big that it intimidates you and challenges God!  Go there with God and see what provision He brings to see that dream come to pass.  

But remember He will always ask you to do something that you think is beneath the volume of your dream just to make sure you are depending on Him and not yourself.

For further thought and reflection:

-Read and discuss with a friend 2 Kings 3:1-27

-What are some great needs you are facing right now?  How are you depending on god to meet those needs?

-What’s your first step to digging the ditch that will allow God to turn your dream into a reality?