We now come to the final and highest way to view risk. In a world fueled by fear, God continually and defiantly reminds us that love matters more than anything else. It lasts forever and is greater than even faith or hope.

Explorers to dangerous lands knew that when things got hard, the crew would be tempted to sail home. To prevent that possibility, the captain would burn the boats. Because once that happened, leaving was no longer an option. Everyone was all in.

Tenet 4: Safe Risk Is All In; Unsafe Risk Keeps All Options Open

From childhood, we’re taught to keep our options open. Don’t put all your apples in one cart. Diversify. Always have a back-up, back-door plan.

A high-school senior recently stated how she was trying to figure out which college to attend. I was about to offer a few thoughts on how she might approach the decision with God when she quickly added, “It’s fine. I’ve got lots of options and no wrong choices.”

Tenet 3: Smart Risk Counts the Cost; Foolish Risk Rushes In

When we risk with God rather than in our own strength, he goes with us, before us, and beyond us. Even then, there’s no predictable outcome or guaranteed immediate result to our risk. This is how the kingdom works. And this is how our faith grows. It requires us to hope in things not yet seen. To trust him with outcomes that seem impossible.

We will face risk. We will take risks. That’s why I came up with five tenets of risk to help us understand and navigate risk with God.

Our culture is fascinated by new ideas, especially when it comes to interpreting our lives. Rarely do we see the danger in embracing the next bright, shiny offering for how we see ourselves, God, or the story we find ourselves in.

Even in Paradise, Adam and Eve couldn’t avoid risk. They would either risk trusting God or they would risk the serpent’s promise that they could become gods. The problem wasn’t with risk itself...but with whom they would trust and how they would proceed.

The fact that we’re continually caught off guard when turbulence hits reveals our expectation that each day should go smoothly. We base our schedule on best-case scenarios and then are shocked when anything derails our perfectly laid plans.

What if everything we thought we knew about risk was wrong or only partial? What if the real problem was never risk itself—but our broken relationship with it and our go-to reaction to it? If so, the best path forward is to set aside our past assumptions and begin anew.

How do you typically react when facing risk? Here are four ways most people respond. See which best describes your risk footprint.

In a world that spiraling more out of control each day, it’s natural to want to risk little, especially when it comes to our hearts. It feels safer. But is it?

How does God approach risk? In the New York Times bestselling book, Wild at Heart, John Eldredge describes it this way:

We aren’t asked to risk by One unfamiliar with the concept. God risks in love, and invites us to do the same.

Some get an adrenaline rush from risk-taking while others run at the first sign of risk. Regardless of what we think of risk, it’s an unavoidable part of our lives.

We’ve spent the last two months looking at the clash between the real and the artificial. The question now is what part will we play in this unfolding cosmic drama? The answer, in large part, depends on how we view risk.

One of my dad’s expressions was, “It is what it is.”

We look at the world and see the wrong ideas and voices gaining momentum while the people and desires of God are mocked and silenced. The trajectory to a plastic, techno future seems unstoppable and inevitable, so we begin to lose hope.