Risk Factors

I consider myself a risk taker.

I'll overbid my hand in pitch on the promise of a helpful card or two from my partner (and yes go set my fair share), invest in individual company stocks, see a light turn yellow and be more likely to speed up than slow down, set bold goals that might not be attainable, see the potential in people and tell them about it.

All things I've counted as risky were put in their place as I sat in Josiah's room and listened to a surgeon explain the risks of what he called a "rather routine" procedure to implant the medicine button.

Risk for our little boy has gone from the likelihood of playground scrapes and bruises to being measured by %'s of surgical procedure complications. The surgeon explained how the medicine button would be implanted in Josiah's chest with a feeder line plumbed into a vein near his heart. As I listened to him explain first the procedure and then the risks I had to excuse myself to get water and take a seat. This was partially because needles and blood make my knees wobbly but even more so because it started to hit me. I began to grasp the realization that in spite of the fact Josiah is in the care of some of the best pediatric physicians in the world, at many steps of this journey the risks and side effects can be life altering.

As the realities of this new season of life began to sink in, I had clarity that the risk factors involved with my "risks" are trivial. The decisions of whether to buy shares of Facebook vs Pandora are meaningless. Whether I win the bid for 8 or lose it with a conservative bid of 6 isn't important. People are important. Taking risks for people matters.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
3:4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance

Thank you for weeping and praying with us through this season. Our hope in the living God gives us courage to look forward to the laughing and dancing seasons ahead.