Last weekend I went on a church camp. This is the third year in a row I have been on this particular camp and each time there has been a bike ride on the Saturday afternoon. There is no age limit on this ride. Some riders in fact travel in a child’s seat on the back of their mother’s bike. Other riders are my age (whatever age that is!). Having watched the riders come and go for the last three years, I finally got bored with watching and decided next time I’m riding. It’s a fairly scary decision, given I haven’t ridden a bike since I got my driver’s license at 18. But the choice is: be bored or be scared.

It started me thinking about an analogy to the Christian life. In the Christian life we can either be bored or scared. Many choose boredom which is why so many church services are so dull. The people have settled for a comfortable, safe version of Christianity where people are never challenged. People never spiritually mature and never move out of their comfort zone. They go through the same routines week after week. Nothing ever happens because they have left God off the agenda and they don’t put God on the agenda because…well, you never know what might happen.

The other choice is to be scared. Following God is scary, it requires us to get out the boat and walk on water. That is, we have to get out of comfort zone and do things we think are impossible for us. God challenges us, stretches us and calls us to do things that we think are way beyond us. The only assurance we have is His presence and He tells us, that is enough.

Personally I’ve chosen to be scared, which is why, at the church camp, I preached my first sermon—all seven minutes of it! A few years ago this would have been completely impossible but God has been doing a work in my life and He is not finished yet.

So in your Christian walk, do you want to be bored or scared?

There are no other options…