I've been to the dark side a few times. Is it hard and scary? Sure! It's also an incredible experience to walk with God there. I think the key is to know without doubt that God has called you to that place and to know that He's there with you.

For me, it all grew from the intimacy that comes from spending lots of time getting to know God and His ways through His Word. It's like spending close, personal time with Him, and with His followers.

Reading about God's faithfulness in the lives of His people inspired me to trust Him enough to take risks I would never have thought of taking before. How could I sit back in comfort after so many others stepped out with such incredible faith? Were they any less timid than me? Well, maybe, but they were still people, with all the doubts that we have.

Experiencing God's faithfulness and loving care through the trials of the dark side has been the most incredible experience of my life. From that intimacy with God flowed depth of prayer, sensitivity to His leading for life, growing faith that supports taking risks, and experiencing God's involvement in my life. Walking with Him through darkness changes everything! Nothing changes perspective more than seeing God's constant interaction in your own daily life!

Now, I'm not one to recommend taking risk for the sake of risk. I'm really a very timid chicken at heart. It's important to know that God is calling me to take that risk, and that He's with me in it. Once you know that, how can you hold back!?

At least from my experience, immersion in God's Word and in prayer is the place to start. Then be ready for the ride of your life! God is so good.

A nice crossover to this issue of RISK is another podcast I'm a part of called the Super Average Podcast.

We just did an episode on risk and what it looks like in a Christian's life. Listen here or subscribe in the iTunes store.

I think the "Dark Side" is the pain and brokeness of others. I know that Jesus is increasingly calling us to become involved in the pain of others. This is especially hard for me because I grew up in the midst of family strife leading to divorce and worse. Pain and conflict avoidance became my priority....until Jesus started messing with my agenda.

I think we (and the church as a whole) have traditionally dabbled in the "Dark Side" but always with the possibility of safe retreat. That is how we do outreach. We reach outside of our walls and then run back to our safe haven when a project is over. We then hope a few will follow us back into our fortress.

I think there are few necessary prerequisites to get us past our desire for safety:
1. We must learn to see the "image of God" (Imago Dei) in everyone, no matter how broken and marred by sin.
2. We must see the visibly hurting and the inwardly broken as people, with names and life stories, not just as a target demographic. People like us who could just as easily be us.
3. We must read the Gospels with fresh eyes, looking for the ways in which Jesus engaged people and touched them with forgiveness and restoration.
4. We must be willing to take a first step, however small. To minister to those in our vicinity. A small act of kindness, to offer a listening ear. We can start right where we are at to those immediately accessible to us.
5. We must be willing to change the routines which isolate us from others. Get out of our cars. Walk in our neighborhoods. Find out who our neighbors are and talk to them.

The sin of the rich man was not that he ignored the far-off poor or the Christian Children's Fund ads. His sin was that every day he had to step over the "beggar laid at his gate." So the question is "who is laying at our gate?". Who are the hurting that we see everyday and ignore? They are the doorway to the "Dark Side".

-Al

Thanks to both Carol and Al for chiming in on this. Both testimonies/offerings have spoken to me this week.

While I'm sure Dion already knows about my admiration of Craig Gross, I am certainly reminded of his ministry with this podcast and couldn't agree more. He has written a book about this very idea called The Gutter and it speaks to how Jesus did his work in the Gutter and calls us to do the same. But we're not going to the gutter, and he asserts that primary reason is fear. When you consider that the Gutter isn't necessarily back alleyways, seedy bars, and other unmentionable places, and that your Gutter may very well be in your own backyard at places you'd never expect, the idea of us being afraid seems silly. But not when you consider that this world--our gutter, if you will--is the very thing that we have been rescued from and therefore the one thing we are SO reluctant to re-enter.

Even entering into our nice clean suburban worlds can seem terrifying when you realize that we have been drawn out of that world and recognize the brokenness it contains.

I too long for the strength and the calling to enter the Gutter or the Dark Side and be for those there, what Jesus was for me when I was living there.

So the question becomes, where is your Gutter and how can you jump back in?

Love this discussion! We have so much to learn about living among and loving our neighbors as Jesus did.

I agree that the opportunities are all around us, even in the suburbs. I think we mostly need to be tuned in to the opportunity God constantly gives us to love our neighbors as He does, and to realize God is preparing for us to respond.

This reminds me of how God taught my husband and me a lesson many years ago. It was Christmas morning and we were just starting a 2 hour trip to my parents house, and we were running late. Our little ones were just settling in for the long ride, and, just as we entered the freeway we passed a disabled car with a family inside and a parent trying to get the tire off the car. By the time our minds got to the point that we realized we should have helped, we were too far past them to react, stop and back up.

Ouch! On Christmas morning we had failed to respond in time to offer Jesus' love to a neighbor. I spent some time repenting as we drove down the road. Then God did something awesome. He gave us another chance - now that our eyes were opened and we were ready. There was another disabled car, and we were ready to respond quickly enough to stop and help. Turns out this time was probably even more urgent than the first one. I wondered if maybe God used that first one to get us ready to respond.

Since that time, I am constantly amazed at the opportunities God has put before us! The broken down car was a small thing. Others have taken more trust in God, or effort or courage to be involved in -- personal crises of people we know or don't know, a chance to help an inner city ministry with particular gifts God's provided, hungry people we need to really see and not walk around, ministry needs that can make a difference for people God loves... There have been SO many! And we still need to learn so much more about responding more willingly and more often. There are never a lack of opportunities, just a lack of responses from us!

Maybe one of the most amazing to me was how God used someone with eyes for the deep need of international people in our midst, and the willingness of 7 St. Matthew women to offer them friendship, which led us to our International Friends ministry, and which now brings dozens of St.Matthew people into personal relationships with hundreds of our international neighbors every week, offering Jesus' love and help to them in a very personal way.

I wonder if maybe we need to develop eyes that really see the need around us, as God's people, so we're ready to respond. Even this discussion can help.

I think too, that while it's all about each of us sharing our lives and Hope with our neighbors, there is a role for church ministry in helping this to happen. Jesus wants us to reach into as many lives as possible for His sake and for theirs. I think that means using every means available to us, both personal and together as a Body of Christ. If we all are personally ready and proactive to engage in the needs of others, as God gives us the opportunity, and our church also uses our corporate strength to help connect with and help even more people, isn't this the most wholehearted response we can give to Jesus' call to love others as well as ourselves?

I suspect all this means a change in our priorities, both individually and as a church - away from our own agendas and needs and toward the needs of our neighbors. On that Christmas morning we were focused on our kids, our schedule, and our own celebration of the day. Those are all good things, but our focus made us miss the need before us. I think we are all probably very much like that as we live our daily lives as individuals and as a church.

Have you noticed the times when we see people and groups serving others sacrificially it's in times of unusual disaster - maybe we need to have eyes to see the "silent" and very tragic human and spiritual disasters that we live in the midst of every day. I think that would change us forever!