Playing it Safe

If you were asked to come up with a simple, single sentence description of your ministry to-date, what would it be?  That's a really tough question to answer.  I know that when I began asking myself that question recently an immediate response did not pop into my head.  In fact, it took me several weeks of praying, reading God's word and talking to various people in my life.  After doing much searching, this is the phrase that I came up with:  "Plays it safe."  That is a tough pill to swallow, because I pride myself on being forward thinking and pushing the envelope to the extreme.  However, in all reality, I have always played it safe.  Let me explain what I mean.

Throughout ministry, I've never placed complete and total trust in God.  I've set goals before, but I always placed them within an attainable reach.  I've seen a lot of students get saved, but I've never fervently prayed for a movement of God to sweep across the church and city.  For the most part, most everything that's been accomplished in ministry so far has been far too "Joey-based" than "God-based".  Because of this, I've never truly experienced a super-natural movement of God.  However, why should this surprise me, when I have never sought out a super-natural movement of God?  I play it safe, and if you know me at all, you know that it kills me to admit that.

I'm currently reading a book by Mark Batterson entitled, "The Circle Maker."  There are many good things that Mark says in his book, however, one phrase stood out above the rest.  On page 78 of his book, Mark says this:  "If you've never had a God-sized dream that scared you half to death, then you haven't really come to life.  If you've never been overwhelmed by the impossibility of your plans, then your God is too small.  If your vision isn't perplexingly impossible, then you need to expand the radiuses of your prayer circles."  As I read that paragraph, I realized that was me.  That describes someone who plays it safe.

Now please understand that I'm not saying that I've wasted all my years of ministry and now I'm throwing a pity party for myself.  That is not the point of this post at all.  However, I do want to have the most effective, vibrant, Kingdom-impacting ministry possible, and I do believe that I have handcuffed myself by not relying and trusting in God to the fullest.  

So let me ask you again, if you were asked to come up with a simple, single sentence description of your ministry to-date, what would it be?  May the Lord use this post to challenge you and to spur you on to press into Christ more and trust in Him fully.