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If you’re like me, you’ll gripe from time to time about the way people do things.

Well, recently something happened in a football game that a lot of people griped about – but I loved it!

If you enjoyed the Buckeyes’ victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, you know it was tense at the end of the game. On Ohio State’s last possession, the Buckeyes needed a couple first downs to run out the clock. In football, you usually do that by running the ball to eat the clock or make the other team use their timeouts.

So what did Ohio State do on first down near midfield?

They chucked it up in the air on a long pass toward the end zone. NOT a high percentage play; NOT what a lot of fans wanted them to do.

But I loved it.

If I was a football coach, I would do things like that from time to time just so those who watched my teams on film knew I wasn’t predictable. The risk was fair: if you complete the pass it ends the game. If not, second down. If you don’t get the first down? Well, you punt and make the other team burn a lot of time driving the whole field.

Risk. Do you take calculated risk? Are you totally risk averse?

That football play parallels life. Sometimes we need to play it safe. Sometimes we need to chuck one to the end zone. As I read the Bible I see a lot of people willing to take risks. Some of those risk-takers lost their lives. Their convictions led them to truly seek God’s kingdom first.

In an age that values safety highly, we do well to think about risks we might take – especially for the cause of furthering God’s kingdom.

Conventional? No. Safe? No. High percentage? No. If I was the football coach, my teams would do some things from time to time to bear risk. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t.

And I’d love it.

Lord, help me have the same attitude about serving you each day!

Think. Why is your risk tolerance where it is?

Act. Might you take a risk for God’s kingdom? Or, how could you at least pray for and support those who do without being so critical?