When God created man He took a risk. Being omniscient, He knew not only what could happen but what will happen. Yet He took it just the same. So all of life is a risk. The story of the beginning should tell us why taking risks is a must. And it should give us a new meaning of life.

Risk is an investment. You put some valuable thing on what you risk on and wait what happens. While waiting, you do your home work--you try to see where the investment is headed for, and make necessary adjustments. I believe this was how God put everything together to work out all things for the general good. Before the beginning began, He saw everything from beginning to last--how things were going to end up, what direction man and creation were going to head for in general. A trend. And then decided remedies to fix everything up. When all was done, that's the time He started Genesis. "In the beginning..."

So if God took risks, and invested, we should get a hint from that and also be used to taking risks. Come to think of it; God took a chance with Adam though He knew he would fail not long after he was created perfect. Even perfect things are bound to fail sooner or later. Thus, risk is inevitable. If you refuse to take one now, you will take it sooner or later--or else a descendant will.

We only take risks with things we see as promising. Some falter even if the strongest probabilities are within easy view, preferring instead to stick with the status quo where they feel settled with their comfort zones. They fear committing mistakes. They fear failure.

If the world were inhabited by nothing but none risk-takers, we would still be in the stone age today. But God raised up radical individuals who dared gamble with their lives and dignity and stepped out of their comfort zones to risk loss, error, and failure. Like, some guy grew tired of taking the stairs and invented the elevator and escalator by taking risks and investing much. If not for him, the rest would have rested comfortably in the thought of taking flights of stairs manually, up to the 125th floor.

In many ways, life is like a gamble. You are given money or talents to bet with on certain directions of life. We're often faced with a junction road with several routes to choose from. We gamble or bet with our lives, and sometimes with our families even. At times, too, we are too intimidated by the possibility of failing, or losing everything. So we take traditional paths, the wide road most people take. There is safety in numbers, we think, and go with the flow. It's the wide road to destruction, says the bible.

The bible is more bent to advise us to be radical and gamble, even bet all-in. No, this is not to endorse casino gambling. What I like is urging people to often leave their comfort zones and take another route. Take a risk. Invest. Gamble. See what happens. God Himself was never intimidated by failure or loss--man's failure would entail lives lost by the trillions, and God knew this. Yet He went on with the risk, knowing that somewhere down the road there will be a winning trend. He Himself made sure it will be so, and this for generations to come. He had built this system into life and creation--there's a sure win for all risk-takers, but not without the cost first. Not without the cross.

It was tough making a huge object float on air. We can just imagine the effort, time, and money the Wright Brothers spent trying to provide a radical alternative to traveling on land or sea, a faster one. Not to mention the infamy they suffered, mocked and laughed at by the world. They were insane, to say the least, in people's eyes, especially the traditional ones. Yet, somehow, they saw light at the end of the tunnel--which no one else saw. They were sure a breakthrough was waiting for them, recompensing for all the hard work, risks, and investments they had placed as "bets."

Today, we just ride on planes without thinking of the risks involved. When something gets established, it's not anymore a major risk--one that most people fear taking, though there may still be some risks involved. And you don't make the world a better place to live in by taking minor, inconsequential risks. The world turns turtle when a crazy individual thinks of something stupid to accomplish, actually takes the risk, and invests on it.

It's the same with individual lives. If you choose a comfortable life, you may end up well, yet you will have wasted a whole life of meaninglessness. I've seen rich people who lived just keeping the money for themselves and their families, and never tried anything daring that would help turn the world upside down. They lived well, materially speaking, but pitifully bereft of any meaning in life. They leave this life among the saddest people.

Mother Teresa could have enjoyed a comfy life in the Vatican. Yet she took a great risk. Without any sure plan of where to stay in India and how to get financial support, she gambled and invested on the lives of poor lepers in Calcutta. I don't know of any greater and deeper meaning in life. It certainly made Calcutta a better place to be in.