No book to review tonight. So, you’re stuck with my deep thoughts. “I got a million of ‘em,” as Jimmy Durante (or somebody) used to say.
Back on Memorial Day I was talking about how young men are (usually) risk-takers. I got to wondering, “What’s the survival value of youthful risk-taking?” Its value would seem to be the opposite of survival.
(I don’t want to get into the Creation vs. Evolution thing here. I think survival value is a real thing, created by God. It’s just the way He designed things to work.)
One would assume that Nature (whether intelligently designed or not) would want young people to stay safe until they grew up. So they’d go on to produce further offspring.
But in fact, Nature drives young men (typically) to go out and try to kill themselves. Drag-racing. Sky diving. Rock climbing. Joining gangs or (sometimes more responsibly) armies. Experimenting with drugs. Asking cheerleaders out on dates.
(I, of course, never did any of these things myself. But there were consequences to playing it safe.)
The point, I think, is that Nature is wise, and under God’s governance. As I’ve mentioned before, I believe that God is a storyteller. His book of Nature is not an equation or formula. It’s partly about science, but it’s also about love and hate and ideals and passions. And one of the things storytelling tells us is that safety is not first. “Who dares wins.” “Faint heart ne’er won fair lady.” “Do not take counsel of your fears.”
Both in the spiritual and the physical worlds, too much caution is fatal, at least in the aggregate. Cowardice would appear to have survival value, but it doesn’t. Cowardly communities do not thrive. Courage kills off some of its acolytes, but those who survive end up running things and making progress.
I think churches often work too hard to produce guys like me. The Kingdom is for risk-takers – “Men of violence take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12) In a feminizing world, we need to provide a place where risks can still be taken, wounds bound up, and locker room speeches delivered. To young men with skinned knees and black eyes.
Nice take.
You can relax, though– I probably take enough risks for both of us. Just today I talked back to my wife!
Matthew 11:12 is such an interesting verse. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has been treated violently, and violent men take it by force” (NASB). So are the men advancing the kingdom or are they subverting the kingdom by force? The context is Jesus asking the crowd who they thought John the Baptist was and how they misunderstand what the prophets have said.
I see it as one of Christ’s hyperboles. I think He’s describing faith as a kind of risk-taking; thrill-seeking. But I could be wrong.