Hey Makers,
This is the last newsletter in our series on risk.
You might have noticed that the newsletter’s name and design have changed. Since today’s newsletter is already long, I didn’t feel that I had room to explain the reasoning behind the changes. I look forward to sharing that with you in an upcoming edition.
Today, to cap off our series on risk, I want to share seven quick thoughts on how to move forward in your creative pursuits.
If you’re new here, this series is rooted in Proverbs 22:13, along with this excellent article by Scott Hubbard and this sermon by the great Charles Spurgeon.
The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” - Proverbs 22:13
Before we begin, I wanted to direct your attention to past editions of this series on risk in case you missed them.
Should you risk it? - Part 1
I almost turned down a life-changing job - Part 2
The real danger has a name - Part 3
What do you want? - Part 4
The tactic keeping you from what you want - Part 5
And finally, here are seven thoughts on managing risk as you move forward in your creative pursuits.
1. Stop misusing your imagination.
He took great pains to escape from pains. He had to use his inventive ability to get himself excused from doing his duty. - Spurgeon
They imagine perils. Then are they in fear where no fear is, frightened at their own shadows, troubled with imaginary ills. - Spurgeon
God gave us the gift of imagination and creativity. Like the proverbial sluggard, we use these gifts to invent and inflate worst-case scenarios, excuses, and fears that inflame worries and anxieties.
Wouldn’t it be better to channel our brains and creative energies into making something? Wouldn’t it be better to apply our logic and reasoning to argue for why we should move forward?
Let’s use our imagination to create instead of using it to inflate our worries.
2. Manage your expectations
The sluggard, however, is prone to label as “anxious toil” any work that meets with inner resistance. He forgets that overcoming such resistance is part of what makes diligence diligence. - Scott Hubbard
Risks are worth taking, and doing good work is usually hard. But that’s okay because we can do hard things.
We get discouraged when reality doesn’t meet our expectations, so we need to know, before we get started, that the task at hand will be hard, and we may fail. But we should remember that our failures won’t likely kill us. They will likely make us stronger.
Two things are simultaneously true. First, we will likely be fruitful if we work hard and labor well. Second, we will face challenges, disappointments, discouragements, and regrets, and we might not be able to achieve everything in our hearts. We will experience fruitfulness and fruitlessness.
3. Don’t let feelings make all the decisions.
The wise learn to take the farmer’s view of life: when the time comes to plow, a farmer pays more attention to the season than to his feelings. - Scott Hubbard
Feelings are finicky and ultimately unreliable. We shouldn’t dismiss them, but we should think them through. Our feelings need the checks and balances of our brains because sometimes they are unreasonable. We shouldn’t just accept our feelings as the ultimate truth because, though they feel like reality, they can be misaligned with it.
4. You are not alone.
Though the promise is, “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet,” they have no heart for the conflict and therefore never win a victory. - Spurgeon
I struggle with the limiting belief that I am on my own and everything is up to me. It’s a limiting belief because it makes the lions (the risks and challenges) I face impossibly overwhelming when I think this way.
First of all, God is with us. If we believe in Christ, we are told that His Spirit is in us and that we have been given divine power for all life and godliness (1 Peter 1: 3). These truths are meant to give us courage.
We also have other people. The challenges we face aren’t all that unique to us. Other people have faced the “lions” that we fear. We can and should find communities of people out here walking these roads and slaying lions. At first, finding these people in our social circles might be challenging. This is one reason why I highly recommend reading. Through reading, we can gain courage and help from people outside our social circles.
There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets,” as if the lion would be sure to look for him if it did not meddle with anybody else, as if he was the only man in the street, and not one among hundreds equally in danger, if such danger there really were. - Spurgeon
5. Not doing is worse than doing.
Lions or no lions, men must work, or find disease and death in sloth. - Spurgeon
We fear the horrors of what we might face outside, but we rarely fear the certain misery and slow death of staying in our comfort zone. The inner sluggard believes the lie that he can avoid death, pain, and suffering by staying inside, but he can’t. If anything, the choice of the inner sluggard is to die before he dies. Even if we do encounter a lion in the street, at least we went out into the world and lived before we died. God made us for work, doing, cultivating, creating, and subduing. That’s why living on mission is life-giving, even if it is a little terrifying.
6. Shoot for small wins.
Proverbs 6:10-11 says,
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.
With these verses in mind, Scott Hubbard shows us its opposite in a person of diligence.
“A little labor, a little energy, a little moving of the hands to work.” Instead of building a stack of small surrenders, they build a stack of small successes - taking little step by little step in the strength that God supplies. - Scott Hubbard
You don’t have to complete the journey in a day. You don’t have to conquer all your fears overnight. You don’t have to reach the top of the mountain in record time. That’s not how growth works. I’m convinced our desire to arrive as quickly as possible is just another side to our inner sluggard.
Growth takes time. Shoot for small wins. Plant small seeds. Take one step forward each day.
7. Work and risk heartily!
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ - Colossians 3:23-24
“Heartily” means with zest and gusto. It also means to do something with sincerity. This verse is saying to us, if you choose to do a thing, really do it. Don’t move forward indecisively. Don’t be wishy-washy. Give it your all. And “all” includes our excitement, energy, and heart.
I hope that this series on risk has encouraged you to move forward heartily.
You’re probably still nervous about putting yourself “out there.” That’s alright because courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s moving forward even though we are afraid. I might add that nervousness and excitement have remarkably similar effects on our bodies. I can’t tell you how often I’ve been nervous because I’m excited, and what I’m pursuing matters to me.
I encourage you to risk all the rejection, failure, embarrassment, and discouragement you fear and do the creative work you long to do.
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ON YOUTUBE
How to choose a career (3 things to consider)
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Quote of the Week
It’s unlikely that the first time you try something, you’ll stumble into the ideal. That’s why it’s important to have a process of reflection and review.
James Clear
I heard this quote on an excellent new podcast I started listening to this past week called "Good Work with Barret Brooks." I like the podcast so far - you can check it out here.
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NEW MUSIC
I realize that I am biased, but my wife has the best voice of anyone I know and is an amazing songwriter. Her very first single as a solo artist was released today! You might even here a bit of yours truly. :)
You can find the song "Abide" here
New Photo Journals
No new photo journals this week folks. More coming next week.
