Yes, for me the gradual practice of centering prayer over the past two years or so has produced my life’s most important insight regarding taking risk. Having failed as a business entrepreneur, I have some experience with the downside of taking certain types of risk. At one time, I might have boldly stated a willingness to risk everything for the hope of a certain kind of success. Experiencing the outcome of taking this kind of risk and failing, I now consider a huge stroke of luck! Without this risk-taking and failure I would never have had the slightest impulse to set on a different journey focused on prayer. I most sincerely consider this failure a huge gift!
Now I look for a different kind of risk-taking that some have called becoming a spiritual entrepreneur. The enormous drive and energy that it takes to succeed in business and a willingness to be totally all-in are a set of experiences I can draw from and perhaps try to mirror now in a different realm of life.
I ask myself, what risks am I willing to take? Paraphrasing, as the Gospels ask of us who say we are followers of Christ, “What does it mean to lose my life?” or, “How do I begin to lose my life?” There is a mystery in these questions that I do not understand but I am drawn to. Here are two question for myself about taking risks which I now consider worthy of silent contemplation and action. Without the practice of Centering Prayer, I would have never been remotely interested in the value of these questions or had any desire to consider an alternate view of risk-taking.
Thank you for challenging us with this excellent question about risk and the spiritual impact daring and bold decisions can have on our lives and others.
Charlie Kasch
