Last week, we took our kids and met some friends to tour the Upper Dells. I've been going to the Wisconsin Dells since 2010, but I'd never took the time to see this part of the area, even though I'd seen pictures of it and it looked beautiful. I can tell you, it is worth the trip! We visited Witches Gulch, which is an otherworldly sandstone slot canyon with a boardwalk for hiking through it. We also saw the Stack of Pancakes rock formation, the Chief Blackhawk rock formation, and tons of other iconic spots along the way.
The pinnacle of the tour, of course, is Stand Rock, which is the probably the most famous spot in all of the Wisconsin Dells. Why? Because this is where stop-action shutter photography was invented by H. H. Bennett. Bennett made this spot famous when he took a picture of his son, jumping between the towering natural rock pillars of Stand Rock. No one had ever been able to capture a person jumping in mid-air, using photography before. As a result, people came from around the world to see the spot, and to jump the gap between the pillars themselves. They have since made it off-limits for visitors to jump the gap, for safety reasons. However, they still have trained dogs make the leap (with a safety net below), to the oohs and aahs of tour guests. I was rather pleased, during my visit, that I was able to capture the dog in mid-air with my camera, the way Bennett captured his son all those years ago.
Original Photo, 1886
My Photo, last week
As I think about this iconic moment in American and photography history, I reflect on the current state of our world. We live in a very safety-focused society, at least in 2024 North America. I'm not against many of the innovations in safety! I get it. At Camp Wakonda Summer Camp, we take every precaution to make sure our campers are safe. And for ethical (and insurance-related) reasons, I know the good folks at the Upper Dells Boat Tours do the same.
However...sometimes I yearn for a time before safety culture took over the world. Oh to be alive in an era when I could jump Stand Rock myself! According to the actuaries of the world, risk is a bad thing, and it should be avoided at all costs. But when I look at the Bible...living a life of faith involves a lot of risk. It actually makes it pretty difficult to apply the Bible stories in our own lives sometimes. Because most people in your life today wouldn't recommend taking risks to the level of being thrown into a fiery furnace, or leaving your whole family to travel to a mystery land promised by a God your family never heard of, or going toe to toe with a giant. These kinds of things might seem too risky--even foolish!--to our modern world.
Nevertheless, God calls His people to take risks for His glory. Paul writes, shockingly, in 1 Corinthians 4:9-13:
For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.
It seems risky to bless people who curse us, to allow people to persecute us by enduring them and not retaliating, and to answer in kindness when people slander our names publicly. It would seem more sensible, in modern terms, to be protective: to defend ourselves when people try to curse us, to avoid or fight back against persecution, and to repudiate slander by setting the record straight and calling out the slanderer. However, those inclinations we have don't necessarily match up with the life Scripture calls us to.
Missionaries continue to be a modern response to safety culture. When God calls, and someone says "I will go," there is power in rejecting the safety of staying at home. When we go to the seemingly untamed and un-Christian parts of the world for the cause of Christ, I'm sure our actuaries would counsel against it. Maybe everyone we know would counsel against it. But it doesn't matter what they say: what does God say?
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Psalm 23:4-5
Recently, a large evangelistic series was held in Papua New Guinea. This is considered, by many surveys, to be one of the most dangerous places in the world. Many from around the world came to help with this series, including the main speaker--General Conference President, Ted Wilson. As a result of going there and preaching Jesus and the Adventist message, over 260,000 were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Remember: when the three young men were thrown into the fiery furnace, the whole nation was able to learn about their God. When Abraham travelled to a mysterious, far away country, he was able to lay a foundation for when his promised multitude of descendants would live there. When David defeated Goliath, Israel was freed from Philistine oppression (at least for a while).
God does the biggest things in our lives when we are willing to take a risk for His glory. It's when we take that leap of faith in response to God's call that we're able to see Him work the most powerfully. Have you always wanted to see God work in your life in amazing and miraculous ways? Give Him the chance by asking what He's calling you to do. And when He answers, answer the call. Do something brave for Jesus. Take a risk. Jump the gap, as it were. Do so, in full assurance that God's got you. He will protect you. And He wants to use you (as crazy as that might seem) to reach others for His kingdom.
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