Risk Taking

I have been speaking quite a bit lately to my 12 year-old son about taking risks. I don't mean doing things like sky diving or running with the bulls in Pamplona. I mean using the gifts you have been given to honor God.

My son, as do most of us, likes to sit on the sidelines in his comfort zone. He has some incredible gifts but doesn't always like to take the risk to use them. We are working on that (and I'm working on it myself).

In the latest issue of the Toledo Free Press, a story appeared featuring John Tesh and the fact that he is coming to Toledo for a concert. Tesh used to be co-host of Entertainment Tonight. Things were going great. Yet he felt drawn to do something else, to use some other gifts that God had given him.

“When I left ‘Entertainment Tonight’ is when [taking risks] began,” he said. “OK, you’re earning seven figures a year for working four hours a day, is this going to be the rest of your life when you really want to be a piano player and you really want to have a voice? It’s time to make a decision, and I think we all face that.”

John is doing well financially--maybe not as well as he was when he was on ET, but he is doing fine. But you know what? I'll bet that even if he was making a small fraction of what he once was, he would be 100 times more fulfilled doing what he was made to do. That is something you cannot put a price tag on!