I am not as bad or as good depending how you take it, as some when it comes to doing things that are risky and even dangerous. I am a bit of an adrenaline junkey but don’t hold a candle to some, like my son-in-law Aaron Eveland. He does things that I only do in my dreams.

One of my things is to attempt several B-HAGs each year. A B-HAG is a “ Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” They are not necessarily dangerous, but they do require a great deal of determination to accomplish. One of my B-HAGs this year was to bicycle from Canada to Mexican along the Pacific Coast, and we accomplished that 2,000-mile trip. I heard so many say to me on the trip, “I would never do that, I would be too afraid someone would hit me with a car.” I was sitting in a hot tub at one of the campgrounds we stayed at and one of the other people in the tub got angry with me when she heard what we were doing, “That is stupid! You are risking your life for no good reason!” Another B-HAG was to fish for a month in Alaska for salmon and Halibut and take the drift boat that I built out in the ocean to catch halibut. I am doing that now and it looks like I will finish strong. Someone said to me, “ You are taking an 18-foot drift boat with a 2.3 hp engine out in Cook Inlet in Alaska?! That is crazy! don’t you know that they have 20+ foot tide changes there, I would never do anything so dangerous as that!” Another B-HAG is to go caribou hunting in the “North Slope” of Alaska with two sons-in-law. Where we will be hunting is as primitive as it gets and there are lots of grizzly bears. I won’t bore you with some of the responses to that one. I responded to one lady who was reminding me of my age, “yes, I know, but I will be with two young, tough, resourceful sons-in-law who like to take care of me!”

We live in an age where many people live with a high level of fear of the unknown and unexpected, and doing everything they can think of to protect themselves. Tools and other things are so inundated with protective devices on them to make some of them almost unusable. Parents are so protective of their kids that they often grow up to be fearful and unwilling to do anything that has an element of risk involved.

The response of Israel when God tried to take them into the promised land.

Numbers 13:33 – 14:1
There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim; Men of great stature) and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.

Matthew 14:29-30
Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and began to sink,

If you haven’t yet watched this short video that my son-in-law made with his kids you should. It is a great illustration and instructions on dealing with risk and danger as he dialogs the adventure their family had rock climbing.