Risk.

The dictionary defines it as:  exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous chance; (It's not worth the risk.)

Risk, or if we are lucky enough, risks- the plural.  Yeah, baby.  What are the risks we take?  The first thing that comes to mind is getting behind the wheel of the car and wondering if this day is going to be the day that that proverbial Mac truck will come barreling down the highway and crash into me.  Yep.  That’s me… the worrywart.  I have a cross hanging on my mirror so that whoever finds me will know that I am a Believer and they will pray for me.

I also mutter innumerable prayers as I travel… “Lord, keep me safe from harm; Lord, please let no one be in the lane I’m merging into;  Lord, keep me in Your care and watch out over my loved ones; etc. etc. etc.”  And that only covers the prayers for me. 

At night when I lay in bed and I know the kids or the hubby is traveling my mind races with prayers for them.  I know their welfare is beyond my control but still I struggle with letting go.

Risk.

What of the risks of the heart?  To love anyone or anything is taking risk.  To put yourself out there knowing that at some moment in time we will lose the ones we love.  That is the cost of loving someone… that payment comes due far too soon in many lives and circumstances. 

Risk.

To risk walking away from a situation (the Hubby calls it ‘cutting and running’) is sometimes the most courageous thing one can do.  I discovered many years ago that no one in this worldly life will or can take better care of me than myself.  Only one person is going to pull my bootstraps up every morning.  No one is going to brush my teeth for me, feed me, clothe me, drag my sorry behind into the shower each day.

I’m tired of standing on the outside looking in on relationships.  I’m tired of the battle of jealously and envy.  I’m tired of the battle of keeping up with the ‘Joneses’.  So, I take a risk.  I choose not to play that game.  I risk relationships because I don’t enable abusive behavior.  I cannot count the number of relationship causalities on the highway of life.  But I’m getting better.  And I hope I’m getting better because I choose to risk becoming ‘Miss Sassy Pants’ to people who choose to say hurtful things.

Every relationship is risky.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s more of an adventure.  Life is an adventure, it’s a risk--- a risk that I am willing to take.