Some things are too risky to attempt (Mt 13:28-29, Voice). Often, though, we simply are not willing to take a reasonable risk. Failure to take a reasonable risk means we could forfeit being healed (Lk 9:24, Voice). A lifestyle where we are unwilling to take risks displeases the Lord (Mt 25:30, Message).
During the American Revolutionary War, French Admiral de Grasse decided to take his whole fleet from the West Indies to the Chesapeake. This involved risking notable loss of some merchants’ property for the far greater gain of fulfilling his king’s more important objective of getting America free from Britain. De Grasse kept the main thing the main thing. He prioritized correctly. He had a vision of what America could be. When he saw his opportunity, he took it, risking the anger of French merchants whose ships in the West Indies would now be unprotected for a little while.
We need to act on the vision and insight we have. It is not enough to have a glimpse of how things could be different; we must act to help make it better. This will often involve real risk of others rejecting or criticizing us. The merchants, whose property de Grasse was to protect, didn’t have the kind of vision for the United States that de Grasse had. He had to do something which many thought to be foolish, risky, and unconventional to give the vision a chance to be birthed. We may have to do so also.
De Grasse probably came to have a vision about what America could be through carefully gathering knowledge and then meditating upon it. It would seem that this is the usual way we get a ‘vision.’ All of us can do this much. Without a vision we miss opportunities (Prov 29:18) but failure to act on the vision we have is to abort the vision, to refuse to bear witness to it (Jn 1:6-7).
Instead of being timid, learn to be appropriately bold.