One of the most exhilarating moments in my life was enjoyed sitting behind a pile of dirt, barely peeking my head above the crest, shouting at Anthony Martinelli to go ahead and shoot. As he pulled back on his bow, I could sense he was wavering so I yelled at him to "Shoot, it will be all right". He let loose, the arrow flied and our foolish experiment turned out all right. The arrow flew over my head I think, although I'm not exactly sure of its proximity to my scalp, I know for a certainty that it missed. This is one of the five or six really stupid things I did when I was young. The last really stupid thing I did was, well, let's just save that for another post.

But I was crazy with exhilaration as I stood up with no holes in my flesh. I was a survivor. Maybe you're thinking, "With friends like Anthony, who needs enemies". Actually, he was a pretty good friend. I only had three or four good friends back then, and he was right up there. After all, It takes a good friend to shoot an arrow at you, not out of malice, but mostly curiosity. I mean, I knew I could trust him after that. We bonded through that stupid little experiment.

I know, I could have been hurt, blinded, even killed. I know that better than you. So yes, don't try this stuff at home. Don't even watch MythBusters, or other stupid cable channel shows that act like risk is not real. Stay awaw from intentional foolishness and outright risk with all possible care and speed.

On the other hand, risk is all around you. You really do not need to test it, you know the take it home and try it method. There is plenty of risk to go around, you don't need to manufacture it or go looking for it. Just sit still and it will likely find its way to your front door at some time or another. Say hello to someone and you may be taking a risk, at least that's how I felt when I was growing up in New York City.  Get in your car for a trip to the supermarket using local streets and traffic signals and you have entered the most risky real estate on the planet, far more frightening than crossing a river in Africa filled with Crocodiles. Well, in a boat anyhow.

They say that leaders take risks, planned risks at least. They cut down the transactions of life from Gamble to Risk by looking at all the angles and possible outcomes and doing anything and everything they can to control the risk. It might well be that leaders like risk, or at least crave risk. It might also be, that one is not much of a leader unless they take risks. I think this is true, at least I have observed such.

Maybe this would be a method for picking out future leaders. Watch your children and see which ones are willing to shoot arrows and which ones are willing to be shot at. One might be the better leader I suspect, I'm just not sure which one. They might both turn out to be leaders. Sadly, I don't know anything about Anthony now. Maybe I should Google him and see if he is in jail or he is a governor or something.

I know one thing, you can't be a leader for long without being shot at. And that first shot will set the stage for all that follows. You will either get up and go wow, let's do that again, or something like it, or you will get up and run home to empty your pants and swear that nothing like that will ever happen again. You will sever all potentially dangerous relationships, avoid main streets, dark alleys on bright sunny days, and generally refuse to speak up and make your voice heard.

Yea, I think that first shot must have scarred me for life even though it didn't touch me. It made me know exhilaration and stoked my dislike for boredom and inactivity. It set the stage for the rest of my life. Now it's my job to exhilarate others, to shoot arrows at them as it were. I do it with deep love and total commitment of course. I am most careful, but I'm looking for leaders. I am looking for those that will serve and love and work and pray for others. All the while, they will be exhilarated by one thing above all others, that they have found their way into the presence of an exciting, risk taking, cross conquering Christ. Spears, nails, words, and far more were shot at him. He died from it all. But he went on to live. We don't need to go to the Cross, Jesus has already done that, but one thing we really should do, every day, is visit Him there at Calvary. Exhilaration abounds there, knowing that we pulled back the bow, let loose the arrows that pierced Him, and He still loves us, coming down off the Cross to embrace us, This then, you can try at home. Take the risk, be exhilarated.