Living on the Edge

Matthew 10:37-39

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Through the annals of history God has called men and women to live on the edge. He called Noah to build an ark for the saving of his family, Abraham to leave his home for a country he knew not, Moses to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, Elisha to burn his plow, sacrifice his oxen and pursue Elijah for the double anointing, Esther to risk her life going to the king to save her people, Jeremiah at great personal risk and sacrifice to warn his people of God’s judgment, Peter James and John to give up the family business to follow Christ and become the founders of the church, and Christ who gave up His rights as God, made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men, humbled Himself and became obedient to the death of the cross for our salvation.

I just returned from Niger where I encountered men and women living on the edge to see the kingdom come to this barren land. I was especially struck by a Brazilian lady whose husband was back in Brazil for three months for surgery, leaving her to run the ministry on her own. They lived in one room of a three-bedroom concrete house. One bedroom served as a food pantry, while volunteers lived in the other room. Their kitchen, dining room, and living room is a center where they prepare meals daily and bring hope to 200 children. They have no privacy, live on the edge financially, and are threatened by bearded men who sometimes sit outside their home in an attempt to intimidate them from sharing the love and hope of Christ to these children.

Living on the edge looks different for each one of us, but every one of us is being called and drawn to that place by the Holy Spirit. Living on the edge is outside of our comfort zone and place of security, it is the tug of the Spirit to involve ourselves in something beyond us, our capacity, and ability. Living on the edge is that place where the natural meets the supernatural, the temporal meets the eternal, and light encounters darkness. Living on the edge is the cry of every one of our hearts because it is where we encounter the face of God.

Break out of the mundane, take a risk, respond to God’s Word and the tug of His Spirit and live on the edge for God.

Andy Clark