A Poem

Speaker at church today read a poem which i found quite helpful, stuff i know but hadn't really thought about for some reason. It was written by a friend of his who he shared a house with when he was in his teens. This friend went on to work in the post-apartheid South Africa, he faced many risks and was eventually killed in an accident whilst bringing the gospel to a township when he was just 21. His parents found this in his stuff afterwards (the quote at the end is from something Jim Elliot said):

Risk

To laugh is to risk looking a fool

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental

To reach out for another is to risk involvement

To show feelings is to risk revealing your true self

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss

To love is to risk rejection

To live is to risk dying

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken because one of the greatest

dangers in life is to risk nothing

Those who risk nothing, do nothing, achieve nothing,

and become nothing

They may avoid suffering and sorrow

But they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or even live

Chained by their certainties, they are slaves

They have forfeited their freedom

"Only a person who risks all that he cannot keep,

to gain that which he can never lose..."

....is truly free.

- Simon Reynolds