Life Is A Risk (February 27, 2005)

I didn't know I was risking my life the other day when I heard the doorbell ring and answered it. It was just a couple Mormons. Harmless.

But according to "Dear Abby" (and many police departments), my answering the door was a foolish risk. Burglars knock on doors to gain easy access. Dear Abby's readers report cases of people getting beaten, raped, robbed and held at gunpoint when all they did was answer a knock at the door. Now they have learned from the tragic experiences of others, and one has posted a sign that reads, "Don't sell me anything, give me anything, leave me anything or offer me anything. If you don't know me or my family, don't knock on my door and don't bother us!" Abby responded to that letter-writer, "I'd say you've covered your bases."

I suppose you can keep yourself a little safer by scaring away strangers and locking yourself in. If I had a daughter who lived alone I guess I would tell her not to answer the door either. Caution is a good thing.

That is, it is a good thing up to a point. Past the point where prudence should fix it, caution is a tool of the devil to drain away the delights of community and fellowship, as well as the virtues of contentment, compassion and self-sacrifice. If you over-protect yourself, you not only become a basket-case but you lose opportunities to have fun and do good.

Some months ago I read about a politician (a governor, maybe) who decided to set a public health example by not shaking people's hands any more. Hands carry germs, you see. If we abolish hand-shaking we'll all get the sniffles less. Great, but in our ever-isolating culture do we really need another barrier to social intimacy? What's so bad about getting a cold? Call in sick, take some Nyquil and sleep it off. Really, how many of us are going to leave behind despairing widows and orphans trailing our hearses just because we caught meningitis from a handshake? Lighten up people. Life is a risk.

If it benefits others, then risking your health and safety is noble and sweet. In Philippians 2:30 St. Paul praises Epaphroditus, who "almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me." Epaphroditus might have avoided near-fatal illness by staying home, but he valued more than life the good service he could render to Paul. In A. D. 254, the bishop of Carthage, Cyprian, organized the parabolani (literally, "risk-takers") of his congregation to bury the dead bodies of plague victims and nurse the stricken city's sick people back to health. It may be that some of those parabolani succumbed to plague themselves. But it was worth it, because they were credited with saving the city from destruction, and God was glorified.

Our fellowship group had a fascinating discussion the other night about what to do if you are walking along Lake Michigan and you see somebody struggling in the water. Do you jump in to save him? You're no life guard. It might end with double tragedy - he might thrash around and drown you!

To which I think the right Christian answer is, “So what?”