Manage Risk Don’t Avoid It

Have you ever seen people who are successful? And it literally makes you want to scratch your head until it bleeds? Like, how did that person do that thing? How did they make it right? You look at some people, you think, there's no universe in which this does not make sense to me. You look at somebody, they're succeeding greater than you are, and you're like, this is insane. How is this possible? You hear some people talk.

You hear some people talk who are successful, and you think to yourself, this person is dumb as a box of rocks. How in the world. How in the world did they make it? Well, I'm going to show you in this verse today two reasons why you have people who are unlikely success stories. And it's going to blow your mind. Well, it blows my mind.

In Ecclesiastes, chapter 5. I mean, chapter 10, verse 5 through 9, it says, there is an evil which I have seen under the sun, an error which proceedeth from before the ruler. And the ruler's like, the government, the governor, right. Or the. The magistrate, right. Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth. Wait a minute. So that seems like the flip is. The flip is exactly script. Can y' all tell I haven't gotten much sleep the last couple days? The script is exactly flipped. It's not just not as it should be or as it seems like it should be. It's the exact opposite of what it seems that it should be. And by the way, some of you don't have to look very far, just notice this. Some of you see it when you look in the mirror. Like, I don't get it. I got all the sauce. I'm doing the stuff. I don't understand why my jam ain't jamming. Can I get a witness? I know that. I know that some of you are thinking that. I was thinking that. I'm like, but I'm as good at this as they are. And they killing it. I can't even wound it.

Like, what is going on? And so.

Well, part of it is. Part of it is. It said, there's an evil which I've seen under the sun, which proceeded from before the ruler. Here's part of the reason is because life ain't fair.

That's part of the reason. Life ain't fair. Like.

Good things don't only come to people who do good. Unfortunately, good things also come to people who don't do good. It's just. It's the way Life works. And by the way, here's what I'm gonna tell you about that. If that's the part you try to fix, you're not only gonna be flopping around like a fish on the sidewalk your whole life. You're gonna be angry at the world because you're gonna try to fix a problem that you can't fix instead of fixing the one you can fix. And see, here's the cool part, okay? You take somebody like Joseph. I'm gonna start in the Bible. You take somebody like Joseph, who was clearly a decent human being. Unfortunately, he had 10 older brothers that were not as decent.

Like, they were so indecent, they thought about killing him. One of the brothers had to talk the rest of the brothers out of killing their little brother. Now.

I've wanted to hurt some of my little brothers before.

But I've never wanted to kill him. Kill him. Like, kill them? No, no, baby. That's your brother, right? And they threw him in a pit.

Now, how deep was the pit? So deep he couldn't get out.

Because they hated him. Because he had a dream and they didn't have one.

Because he had words and they had nothing to say. I read this quote somewhere yesterday. I thought it was one of the greatest things or. I heard it. I heard it yesterday. Tim Ferriss said it. He said. He said.

Life.

Punishes.

I can't remember it exactly now, but life punishes. The implied wish, but rewards the clear ask.

Isn't that good? Like, you're sitting around just. Well, I just wish it was better. I wish they would just give me what I deserve. Well, good luck with that.

Because this ain't that right. So you take somebody like Joseph and he ends up. And he ends up getting taken out of the pit by the Midianites. And then they sell him. And you remember the Midianites, right? The Midianites were the ones that tormented Gideon and, like, made the entire nation of Israel impoverished. They were like grasshoppers in the land. Okay? Anyway, the Midianites came, took him out, sold him into slavery. He's working in Potiphar's house as a slave. His boss's wife tries to seduce him, and he does not succumb to the seducing. And then she lies on him and he goes to prison for a crime she committed.

I mean, that's pretty unfair.

Right? So if you're waiting for life to get fair so you can win, you gonna lose.

Right? Just understand how this is how it works, baby. So. So.

Fast forward.

God gave him a gift and put us something inside of him that was preparing him. But Joseph had to go through some stuff in order to get to his stuff and see even though this evil that proceeded from the ruler, that life ain't fair. And that there are things in life that are not just. Even justice, as we call it, is not just. It's just not justice. Just isn't just.

Okay. However, it doesn't matter, because God is just. God's not fair, but he's just.

And he does his thing. And so.

God gives Pharaoh a dream and won't let anybody understand it but Joseph. And so Joseph goes from being the hated little brother who's thrown in the pit, sold into slavery, and goes to prison for a crime he doesn't commit to being the prime minister.

Hmm. You take David. Life ain't fair. There's an evil which proceeded from before the king. From. From before the ruler. That.

Fools are set in great dignity. And what is going on here? Well, you take King David. Well, you take David. You take King Saul. Clearly, he became a fool. I won't say he was a fool, but he became a fool by believing his own press, probably, like so many people do.

And he was taller than everybody else in the whole country. Like, he was the tallest dude in the whole country. The person who was second tallest came up to his shoulder. And when the giant came, Saul was scared to fight him, and so were all the other soldiers. Why? Because if a fish stinks, it stinks from the head down.

So God calls Samuel and says, I want you to go to Jesse's house and anoint one of his sons to be the king. Well, Jesse had eight sons. So Jesse invited seven of them to the coronation.

And none of them wasn't it. And I love the way it says it in the King James. When he looks at all these sons, he says, the Lord has not chosen this. The Lord has not chosen this. The Lord has not chosen this.

David didn't even get invited to his own coronation, to his own ordination, to his own anointing. He didn't even get invited. He goes to all the other boys. He's all, well, surely you have to have another son. God told me to come here. They're all like, who, Dave? Who? Little David? You talking about Davey?

You say, myron, what's my point? My point is life ain't fair. Don't try to fix that part.

Okay, here's the second part. Here's what it says.

Folly is set in great dignity. Rich sit in low place. I've seen servants upon horses and princes walking servants upon the earth. Then it says, he that diggeth a pit shall fall into it.

Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him. See, we know about that in Florida, don't we?

So I play golf. And we got alligators close to the water and in the water. What does that mean? Don't go in the water. But we got snakes in the woods. And snakes like bushes because they can hide. And see, here's the thing about a snake. If it's in the bushes, it can see you before you can see it.

And he that breaketh a hedge of serpent shall bite. Like, I play golf with dudes. They just go walking off all up, up in the woods. Like they ain't walking into the living room of the serpent. Man, that's his house. I don't want him in my house. I ain't going in his house. Y' all tracking? Okay, so he that breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him. And he that removeth stones shall be hurt therewith. And he that cleaveth. He that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby. What does that mean? That means any work that you are going to do comes with an element of danger.

It comes with an element of risk. And if you avoid the risk, you abdicate the reward.

Are y' all tracking? And see, here's the interesting thing.

The risk itself cannot be known until the work is done. So it's not even the risk that you're afraid of. It's your perception of the risk that is causing you to have so much anxiety that it's paralyzing you and will not let you move off first base. So you so stuck like Chuck in a pickup truck asking yourself the worst question a human can ask themselves. What if this doesn't work?

Imagine. Hear me now. Imagine if every world changer in the past had obsessed on the question, what if this doesn't work? This is the beginning of so called Black History Month.

And yes, I said so called because history doesn't have a color, right? Black people have been contributing to the world society and American society every month, every year since it began. So let's don't get it twisted. Okay, so it's Black History Month. So called Frederick Douglass, one of the greatest Americans ever. One of the greatest people ever. The man was born into slavery. Life ain't fair.

He was born a slave.

The master sold his mother away from him when he was six years old.

It was against the law. No, no, no, no. It wasn't a bad thing against the law. Justice ain't just for him to learn how to read.

Against the law. But his master's wife was teaching him and some other slave children how to read.

At her own risk.

His master came in and called his wife teaching these slaves how to read, and he flew off the handle. Woman, what are you doing? You can't teach these slaves how to read. If you teach these slaves how to read, they will read books and find out that the world is so much bigger than the world they live in now. They'll never be content to be a slave again.

And whatever you do, don't ever let them read the Bible.

So.

As a little kid.

For whom life was not fair.

He realized that if this person who owns me.

And could sell his mother, he didn't sell his mother, could sell his mother away from him and him away from his mother. I was thinking about a totally different slave, but could have sold his mother away from him at any time, could have sold him away, could. Could beat him within an inch of his life, take his life and not even be prosecuted if this person is that dead set against me learning how to read. Here's what Frederick Douglass said. It is the most important thing I must learn to do.

At his own date risk, it's against the law. His master's wife has already got in trouble with her, with his master. Now he knows I got to learn how to read. So you know what he did? Every time he found a piece of paper, a piece of newspaper, a book, something somebody threw away, he would keep it. And because he worked in the big house, he would give scraps and leftovers from the big house to poor white children who would teach him how to understand letters. So he learned how to read. And he learned how to read so well that when I read his autobiography at 21 years of age, there were words that he used that I had to look up in the dictionary.

And I'm relatively fluent in the English language. I've been speaking it my whole life.

But not only that, he learned the trade of carpentry, and he made furniture and he sold it, and he saved his money and he bought his freedom. And then he had it stolen from him. And then he made some more furniture and he sold it, and he bought his freedom again, and he had it stolen from him, and then he made some more furniture and he bought his freedom again, and then he's finally free.

What? And we think we have an excuse.

When it's against the law for you learn how to read, and you learn how to read Anyway.

And then you learn a trade and then you buy your freedom, like. And then you're not content to be free alone.

I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to. I'm going to take what I've learned about communication through reading, and I am going to become an abolitionist. I'm going to use my words to help get rid of slavery as a world system. I'm just going to do everything in my power to abolish slavery. And he began to make speeches about the importance up north about the importance of abolishing slavery. And he gained an audience with the President of the United States. He gained an audience with the Queen of England. And we think we have an excuse. He didn't allow his anxiety over the negative ramifications of him learning to do something that was illegal for him to do. He didn't allow his current circumstance being born as a slave and being treated like property. He. He didn't allow that to stop him from pursuing the thing that God put inside of him. He didn't allow the fact that if he digged a ditch, he might fall in it to keep him from digging a ditch. He didn't allow the fact that if he broke a hedge, a snake might bite him to keep him from breaking a hedge.

He didn't keep the fact that if he was cleaving wood, he might be endangered thereby. He didn't let that keep him from cleaving wood. And see, here's the problem. We look at the things that we desire to have and then on the other side of things we have to do because. And then we look at the potential risks of the things we have to do in order to have the things we desire to have, we say, ah, you know what? I don't really want it that bad. I think I'll go watch the Flintstones or whatever's on TV today. And the reality is. The reality is because justice isn't just and the system ain't fair and life ain't fair, that is not enough to keep you stuck.

Because against all odds, you can rise above your circumstance. If you who everybody, tap yourself on the chest, say me, if you are willing to take the risk.

And so we can look at what other people haven't done for us, and we can look at what other people have done to us. But if we will acknowledge the fact that we are made in the image of the great God of the universe and he's put so much inside of us that when we access it and we act like we Believe we made in his image. It doesn't matter who out here is trying to stop us. We got so much inside of us that the forces outside have no hope.

I wasn't born a slave. I don't have an excuse. You weren't born a slave. I'm not saying life is fair and life is equitable. It's not. And it's not going to be. Not until Christ comes down to rule upon the earth. Then it'll be fair and equitable. Then it'll be. Everything will be just perfect. But in the meantime, in between time, we got to take a chance on something and we got to be willing to take a chance on ourselves doing the things that God told us to do in his word and act as if it might just work.

I'm glad that I read in the scripture that it says and you study to be quiet and to do your own business. Working with your hands as we commanded you. Why? That you may walk honestly toward them that are without. What does that mean? Walk honestly toward them that are without? Somebody asked me this question in a YouTube comment last week. So sometimes believers think their reputation is only important amongst believers.

But it's important, period. And see the person or the institution that I have my mortgage with. They may or may not believers, so be believers. So I gotta make sure I pay them on time. The person who comes and cleans my pool, they may not be a believer. So when they come and clean my pool, I can't say, okay, well, I'll just pay you when I get around to it. People who cut my grass, I can't. Well, I'll just pay you one of these days when I get some more money. No, I have to walk honestly toward them. They're without. I have to pay my bills, pay them on time. When I owe somebody some money, I pay them.

Even if it means I have to go without, I'm still going to pay them. I work, but I shouldn't have to go without. Why? Because that you study to be quiet and do your own business. Working with your hands. We commanded you that you may walk honestly toward them with their without. But watch this and that you may have lack of nothing.

That's God's plan for your prosperity.

God's plan for your prosperity. I know there are going to people who people don't like what I'm about to say, but it is what it is. God's plan for your prosperity is not, you give me some money and then God's going to bless you. Now if you give me some Money. God might bless you. Then again, maybe not. I don't know. I hope he does, but I don't know. I don't have any blessings for sale.

And I think people think that being financially prosperous is all mystical and magical and miraculous. And while there's an element of that to it, the reality is God told you to go do something. And what's really interesting, the first seed.

The first fruits. The first fruits goes to God. But the first seed of I'm supposed to. So in my field that God gave me is my family business, so I can support my family. Because when God brought the children of Israel into the Promised Land, what he did, what he gave them was a plot of land. And that plot of land wasn't just some place to sit down and someplace to put up a tent. It was the family business. Place to raise some crops, place to raise some cattle. And here's what God said. The land shall not be sold forever. The land is mine, saith the Lord. I'm not just giving this business to you, I'm giving this business through you.

And when we do things God's way, it's amazing how much better they work than when we do them the world's way.

It's amazing. So you say, Myron, what are you saying? I'm saying stop being afraid of the risks that are associated with the rewards that you say you desire. Because if you do, you keep being afraid of the risk. And really, you're not even afraid. You're having anxiety over the risk because you don't even know what the risk really is until you do it. You just know what you think the risk might be if you're having anxiety over that. Right? There's a difference between fear and anxiety. Fear is caution over a real and present danger. Anxiety is caution over a future imagined danger. And when I imagine a danger in the future, that's so great that it paralyzes me in the presence, that's not fear. In the present, that's not fear. That's anxiety.

And the reason I have anxiety is because I can see it not working more clearly than I can see it working. And until I can see it working more clearly than I can see it not working, I'm going to have anxiety. So I have to change what I'm looking at in my head.

So remember the story about the talents. It's crazy hot in here. Praise God. You remember the story about the talents.

So this business owner called his servants to him, and he gave unto him his goods to one. He gave one talent to two. Another he gave two. To another, he gave five. And of course, you've heard me talk about maybe you haven't. So I'm just going to go ahead and say what a talent is. A talent, let's say a talent of gold or talent of anything. Talent was a weight of measure. Depending on what country it was from, it weighed somewhere between 68 and 74 pounds. So if you take. Let's say it's a talent of gold and you got one talent, let's just call it 70. Let's just call it 70 pounds, right? So I'm going to say 70 pounds times 16 ounces equals 1120 pounds of gold. That's one talent, right? So if you divide, if you multiply that times the current price of gold, which is about $2,000.

That'S $2.22,240,000 that he gave one person. The other person, he gave 480,000. No.

448,000. Four million. That's right. 4,480,000. And to the other, he gave three times that much. I mean, five times, whatever that is. Over $10 million. Almost $10 million. Okay, so now we understand the story better, don't we? So to the one he gave the 10 million to, or we'll call it nine and a half million, he turned it into 19 million.

In today's dollars. The one he gave 4.8 million to, he turned it into $9 million. The one he gave $2.24 million to, he turned it into nothing. He let it stay exactly what it was. Here's what the scripture says. He came to the one, he said, okay, what'd you do? The one that I. Well, you know, you gave me five. I did the best I could. I gave it to the exchanges, we turned it into 10.

Well done, thou, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy lord. The one he gave two to, you know, $4.4 million. Okay, what'd you do? Well, I turned it in. Gave me two, I turned it into four. So now I turned it into, you know, a little over 9 million. Okay, well done, good and faithful servant. Come enter into the joy of thy Lord. Called the one that got one. So what'd you do with the talent I gave you? Well, what had happened was.

The economic climate and the current circumstance caused me to project into the future that it was not going to work out that well. And to keep from losing what you gave me, I buried it in the dirt. Now he said, because you're a hard man, and I Know that you reap where you haven't sown. You gather where you haven't strawed. He said I buried it in the earth because I was afraid.

You did. He didn't say it like this, but this is how I would. You did what?

Buried it in the earth because I was afraid. Now here's one of the most fascinating parts of that story to me. I'm going to ask you all the question y' all talk to me. Who had more to lose? The guy that received two talents or the guy that received one? Who had more to lose two. Okay. Who had more to lose? The guy that received one talent or the guy that received five? Five. Isn't that fascinating?

What's fascinating about it? This is fascinating to me. You can let me know if it fascinates you as well. The people who have the most to lose are the least afraid to lose it.

And the people who have the least to lose are the most afraid to lose it.

People who are grown and broke, walking around worrying about whether or not somebody's trying to scam them.

You're grown and broke. What does that equal? Already been scammed.

And you know what scams you? Your anxiety scammed you. It talked you out of digging a ditch because you might fall into it. It talked you out of cleaving wood because you might be endangered thereby. It talked you out of breaking a hedge because a serpent might bite you. It stopped you. Talked you out of moving a stone because you might be injured thereby.

The people who have the most to lose are the least afraid to lose it. The people who have the least to lose are most afraid to lose it.

But I guess that makes sense.

Because if you are too.

Psychologically paralyzed.

To take action to make your future better.

Why should anybody else believe in you?

So here's what I'm going to recommend.

Trust that God is right about you.

And anybody who disagrees with what God said about you, that's their problem, not yours.

So the greatest risk of all is to avoid all risk.

Instead of managing the risk that you decide to take. I hope this blesses you and helps you take your life to the next level. In the meantime, in between time, stay blessed by the best. Peace out.