Take the Risk
Creativity requires risk. So do exploration and innovation. Anyone who thinks outside the box is taking a risk. Leadership brings many risks. Investments involve risks. Decision making always means a certain degree of risk.
The most important developments in science, history, technology and the arts came from taking risks.
Ben Carson, MD.
Dr. Carson writes this book to challenge those who read it to take risks and do so by following a way of processing decisions that he has used for years. His Best and Worst Case Analysis format is easy to digest and could provide a systematic way to help anyone who has a tough decision to make.
Here are the four questions he asks:
1. What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?
2. What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this?
3. What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do this?
4. What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do this?
Dr. Carson is a world renown neurologist and surgeon who is also a strong believer in Jesus Christ. His faith is at the foundation of the questions above and in his reasoning to act or not act. He says plainly in this book that we are “always safe in Jesus Christ.” He has been involved in some of the most incredible and dangerous surgeries in medical history and shares those stories in this book.
All the above is good and will be helpful to me as a new way to think through tough decisions. But, the real gem in this book is found in chapters 10 (Faith is a Risk Whatever You Believe) and 11 (Living Your Faith in an Uncertain World). In these chapters Dr. Carson offers the most complete yet simple and concise explanation of how science continues to support creationism. He makes it obvious that faith in evolution takes a much larger leap than believing in an all powerful God. He completely dismantles Darwinism and it’s proponents.
***The following is not in the book it’s just something the book caused me to consider***
One thing I love about God is that he is incapable of risks. I don’t believe the bible offers a God that has to do a Best Worst Case Analysis himself. Risk, by its very nature, involves uncertainty and if God is uncertain about anything then he can’t be God. In Exodus 3:14 God says, “I am who I am” not “I am who I think I am”.
It is on this foundation that any believer can say along with Dr. Carson that we are “always safe in Jesus Christ”. We then are left to wrestle with the reality that sometimes what we consider as risk is really a matter of trust.