Life: It's a risky business

 

For months the government’s message to its citizens was, ‘Stay At Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS’. Now that lockdown measures are easing ministers would like us to venture out a bit more. Workers should leave the comforts of home and get back to the office, otherwise sandwich shops will go bust. Then there was the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ initiative, counterbalanced by a campaign to encourage people to take more exercise. Air corridors were opened to favourite holiday spots, only for them to close again, forcing Brits returning from Spain and France to quarantine for two weeks.

After months of being told what to do during lockdown we are now being asked to weigh up the risks for ourselves and get on with life as best we can. Of course, it would be wrong to be foolhardy. Social distancing and good hand hygiene should be maintained, but living life to the full involves taking risks. Sadly, we know that not everyone who gets married ‘lives happily ever after’, yet many of us nevertheless risked all for love, pledging to stick by our wife or husband, ‘for better for worse, for richer, for poorer’. And we’re glad we did.

A playing it safe, risk-free life would be rather dull. One thing that enables us to take risks is hope. Holiday makers hoped their trip to the south of France would be worth the inconvenience of possibly having to quarantine. The Christian faith is big on risk-defying hope in the light of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The first Christian missionaries to the New Hebrides were killed and eaten by cannibals only minutes after they reached land. That was in 1839. Almost ten years later John G. Paton and his wife set sail for the same islands with the intention of sharing the good news of Jesus with the inhabitants.

A friend tried to warn Paton against such a risky undertaking, “You will be eaten by cannibals!” The missionary would not be put off, replying, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.”

Paton wasn’t eaten by cannibals. His mission was a success and he lived to a good old age. The preacher’s unwavering hope in Jesus enabled him to take a huge risk that paid off. We may not be called to such a dangerous mission, but with hope in our hearts we can defy fear and face the risky business that is life in a world stricken by coronavirus.

*For News & Views, West Lavington parish magazine