When a building is taken down, bystanders love to watch. However, the hundreds of tons of brick, steel, and concrete that come tumbling down create a hazard that threatens life and limb.
Workers have to establish a safety zone. They install nets, sawhorses, or brightly colored tape. They want to get our attention. Get on the wrong side of that barrier, and we risk our very existence.
Yet, where does the exciting stuff happen? The crowd mills around, and they feel the excitement, but where are the cameras aimed? On the crowd safely ensconced in the safety zone? Of course not. The cameras all show the deadly explosion as it transpires. That’s what’s exciting.
At the circus, do we watch the crowd or the lion tamer with his head in the lion’s mouth? Is Niagara Falls more interesting than the tightrope walker who traverses the wire stretched from side to side?
What has our attention is what’s beyond the safety zone. The Christian needs to explode that spiritual safety zone. We need to quit watching from the sidelines and put our head in the lion’s mouth, walk that tightrope, and be prepared to blow up for Jesus.
Look at Abraham. He lived the razor edge of life, and he did it because God had him on tap to become the foundation of not one great religion, but of three.
Let’s see how Abraham blew up his safety zone:
Genesis 12:1-10 tells us he went from his country, leaving his family behind. With no roots, he had no one to trust except God.
Genesis 21:2 says he bore a son when he was an old man. Try this if we want to live on the wild side with no safety nets at all!
Galatians 3:6-9 shows us Abraham’s faith. He moved at God’s instruction, even when he had no substance to back it up. He leaped beyond his safety zone.
Hebrews 11:17 reveals his trust in God, for he was prepared to sacrifice his own son. He was willing to give up God’s promise if God demanded it.
Abraham stepped into the explosion. He dared the lion, and he danced the tightrope. With God as his protection and his shield, he became more than he ever would have been if he had stayed out of harm's way in the safety zone.
As Christians, let’s find God’s explosion and leap into it. We don’t want to watch from the sidelines. We want to be in the thick of things. We want to be where the party’s at. We want to have the world’s eyes trained on us.
Then and only then will they see the Jesus that is living in us.
The real fun begins when we step off the sidelines, cross out of the safety zone, and join the explosion of life.
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