Andy Williams and an art-afficionado acquaintance Peter Tillow attended an art exhibit, featuring a set of paintings of pin-tail ducks by the Ward Brothers. On Peter’s advice, Andy agreed to go as high as $6,000 for the set.
However, the bidding continued beyond $6,000 to $8,000, then $10,000, Peter involved and an increasingly frantic Williams fruitlessly trying to stop him. The bidding finally stopped at $29,000, with Andy in shock. With a well-chosen profanity he exploded: why did Peter so casually ignore his appeals and why did he crash through the ceiling that both agreed to honor? He had no response to the reply: sometimes you have to take a chance. Moon River, 222-223. Sometimes you do have to take a chance. Nothing is certain in life, but doing nothing will usually achieve an equivalent result. Doing something may very well have the same result, but it also may bring success. Non-Christians face the challenge: should they take a chance and surrender to Jesus? Can they survive the loss of habits to which they have become habituated, even addicted? Or long-established companionship with like-minded friends? And on and on. Christians don’t escape the challenge. Do they dare take a chance in discipleship: accepting a role they fear but find necessary; serving in an area they have previously avoided; risking failure or rejection by witnessing to a friend or acquaintance. And on and on. Sometimes you have to take your life in your hands and TAKE A CHANCE! Christians have this assurance: if God wants it done, and us to do it, he’ll empower skills we haven’t used, and maybe didn’t know we had. And this assurance: if we try and fail, the very effort increases our confidence to keep trying. For in Christian service, the “behinder we get the greater our forward motion becomes.”
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