As darkness falls this evening, the winds of storm Eunice seem to be subsiding and my thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected by this storm. The storm has claimed lives, closed schools and caused mass disruption across the country.
My college lectures for today were forced onto zoom, and we learnt about God’s mission for the world and how as Christians, we are called into this mission. As we discussed the topic of mission I watched the large bamboo in my garden being battered by winds that gusted at nearly 90 miles an hour, and unlike the rest of my garden, these long flexible green-leaved canes have withstood this massive storm. The Latin name for Bamboo is Phyllostachys, and this simply means leaf spike and refers to the flower cluster of the Bamboo. The flowering of bamboos is an intriguing phenomenon because it is a unique and very rare occurrence in the plant kingdom. Most bamboos flower and seed once every 60 to 130 years, and the energy to produce these flowers is often so exhausting for the plant that it dies.
It struck me how much risk is involved when you grow a bamboo plant from a seed. How precious the seed is when it comes from a plant that has given its life to blossom.
This week at college, we have been looking at mission and asking the question does God take risks? It made me think of the bamboo that’s in my garden. I brought the bamboo plant from a specialist bamboo nursery in Germany, and it arrived through my letterbox as a tiny precious seed. I always thought the risk of sowing seeds was in the planting; that the risk we take as gardeners is that germination will not happen, and the seed will not grow. Theirs the risk that I will not provide the seed with the right conditions. I might overwater it, starve it of some essential micronutrient and consequently, the plant will wither and die, or worst still never even germinate.
I’ve realised this week that the risk was not planting the bamboo seed; the risk I took was to release one of the fastest-growing plants on earth into my garden – a plant that can grow as much as 10 centimetres in a single day. I risked planting a species of plant that grows with so much vigour you can watch it grow, and I confidently and knowingly took the risk of planting this fast-growing bamboo into my garden.
We often think or are told that being missional is risky business. That to be missional, we must take risks, take chances, and set ourselves up for failure and possible pain. Yet the risk assessments we make in our minds do not always reflect the whispers of our hearts. If we never plant the seed we remove the risk of germination, If we remove the risk of germination we also remove the risk of growth. If we remove the risk of growth, our future landscape will not change, instead, it will become trapped in a musty cloud of slow decay and gentle decline.
So my thought for today ponders is ‘God the biggest risk-taker of all’.
C.S Lewis wrote about God as a risk taker, and in his book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Aslan the lion represents Christ, and C. S Lewis describes the risk of being in the company of this great lion ‘as not safe, but good’.
During our lectures this week, we learnt that it is ok to talk about a risk-taking God… that as Christians, we should partner with God as “fellow risk takers’ and step out into a changing landscape and join in Gods great journey of adventure. We were warned that this journey is risky but reminded that Jesus is commissioning those who would follow him to be bearers of the light, even to the ends of the earth. Jesus never promised that it would be easy: he spoke of times of great violence and persecution when most people would prefer darkness to light, Yet, John 1:5 tells us “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
What an extraordinary thing. What a risk – When I pushed my precious bamboo seed into a tray of compost, I took a seed from light into darkness. Yet through germination, it overcame the darkness and grew back into the light that continues to sustain and change its life.
What an extraordinary thing: what a risk: for God to entrust his precious light to a young girl from Nazareth called Mary – to entrust his light to a motley crew of disciples – to entrust his light to you and to me.
We have a responsibility to journey with people from the darkness into the light to risk being bearers of the light – a responsibility to those who are still to come, to create and recreate a landscape that reflects the light and love of Jesus into the darkest pockets of the earth.
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