Is playing with fire the new normal?

Recently, I ran into a nice young man that I generally only see during spring break when he comes to visit his grandparents. When I saw him, I knew instantly that something was wrong, that he had recently been through very trying times.

Perhaps it was the look on his face or his reluctance to explain the soft cast on his right hand. It turns out he had been through a life and death experience and barely escaped with his life. He lost a finger and a thumb and sustained an injury that will certainly impact him the rest of his life.

One night he had been hanging out with a friend goofing off with fireworks when things started to escalate. They were drinking and his friend started making homemade jar explosives. At one point his friend tossed him one of the jars with a lit fuse and when he used his hand to deflect it, it exploded. The good news is he deflected it, for it was headed for his chest and would have almost certainly killed him.

In retrospect, its easy to reflect on the situation and conclude that he should have seen the warning signs. He should have sensed the escalating risk and removed himself from the precarious situation.

When I was fourteen, i was once in a similar situation with a friend who decided it would be fun to hit live ammo with an aluminum bat atop a cinder block. He assured me that he had been doing it often. His brothers and sisters, who were younger than me, apparently loved the diversion. They would stand nearby and shout with glee when a round “fired”. I did not share their enthusiasm, I overcame his objections and ridicule and went home, alone.

Few in the Christian community would reflect on these two stories and conclude that perceiving risk was equivalent to lack of faith, or that avoiding a precarious situation was equivalent with abandoning one’s friends or community, and yet…

That is exactly how the christian community at large treat preppers. People who have assessed the risk in our modern interdependent world and decided that they should prepare, take steps to reduce the precariousness of their position. they are often relegated to the stature of extremist.

Why is it that prudence in assessing risk (balaam’s donkey) or taking bold action in mitigating risk (joseph) is celebrated in scripture but scorned in modern christian life?

Has playing with fire suddenly become safe? My friend with 3 fingers on his right hand certainly doesn’t think so.

“A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” Prov 27:12