I mean minimizing what can go haywire.
A lot of what I tried to do early on in the Christian life was a high-risk ministry. That is, a lot could go wrong. Sometimes a lot did go wrong. There were a lot of moving parts to go haywire. It was marked with complexity so there was a great possibility that something would go wrong. The more complex we make something the more likely it is to break down.
Bells and Whistles
I like cars that are cool. A friend of mine has an amazing car that has a lot of features. It is quite impressive, or at least it was impressive for its first 18 months until little things started going wrong with many of the shiny doodads. It wasn’t long after that that the manufacturer’s warranty expired, then he was stuck with a vehicle that was riddled nitpicky problems that drove him crazy. It got to the point that he couldn’t even get his windows to roll down without investing $500. Ouch! There is an outreach lesson to the wise in this car story. Sometimes it’s better to stick with the basic model and steer clear of things that are the extravagant versions.
Keeping It Simple
I’ve done a lot of things that have gone south, especially in the realm of outreach. I’m at the point now where I seek to minimize the risk as much as possible. Instead of going for the glitzy, I say let’s just go with the basic approach that will get us from point A to point B efficiently. Quick, easy, no one gets hurt. Let’s wash cars. Let’s clean toilets. Let’s mow lawns. Let’s knock on doors at the trailer park and give away juicy, fresh hot hamburgers by asking, “How many would you like?” There’s not a lot of room for error there. There’s not a lot that can go wrong. I like that. I think you will too. Let’s go do some damage to the powers of darkness.
