Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.

- - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I've wrestled with this quotation for about a week knowing there was something profound in it but, not being able to articulate it. I kept thinking about that word, "dangerous". It's striking.

As the Program Director at UW-Milwaukee Outdoor Pursuits, I work with student staff and participants every day.  I think and talk a lot about danger and risk. I weigh the pros and cons for each kayak run and climbing route, each gear purchase and each trip leader assignment. In our litigious culture, we usually talk about risk as the potential for loss. It's funny then, that risk also creates the potential for gain.

In the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians he writes, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Paul lived dangerously to communicate the bold and complete love of Christ. Through prison, torture and three shipwrecks he never stopped. He urged people to consider challenge a gift for expanding faith and endurance. Christ-like love will always be the most difficult thing we ever aspire to. But, it is the one goal most worthy of our devotion and sacrifice. It is the thing on which everything else hangs.

Our faith allows us to focus on living in love as Jesus compels us knowing that when our time on Earth comes to an end, love remains and never fails. No matter the risks we take, love wins. And, if our goal is love, we can never lose. I hope that today you experience the freedom of living with a kind of dangerous unselfishness.