You Bet Your Life

Q: Is it foolish to take risks?

A: No one enjoys danger. No one likes taking risks and gambling, especially when the stakes are high, when it’s a life or death situation. Fear of loss or death makes them reluctant. Only a stronger emotion than fear can overcome their reluctance to take risks, like greed in the case of gamblers. But for heroes, the stronger emotion is love, love of country, family, and others. Firefighters rush in where demons fear to tread to rescue victims trapped in a fire. Sometimes, they lose their lives, but if they lose it out of love, they win the game of life.

A parent will risk their life to save their child. They will risk failure by moving to a new city in a gamble to find a better future for their children. If there’s insufficient love of self and others, fear will keep people stuck in mediocrity, abusive relationships, and unfulfilling jobs. Fear will keep them from seeing the signs and hearing the clues from their Higher Self, showing the way out of their situation, which always involves risk. But with attunement to God’s will, we will always succeed (see Atunement and Atonement).

With gamblers in casinos and stock markets not only greed but also the thrill of winning cancels out the fear and sadness of losing. They are addicted to the high of winning. Other people are addicted to other adrenaline-filled activities such as car racing, skydiving, and bungee jumping, which involve the risk of injury and death. And others are addicted to the vicarious thrill of watching them.

Instead of foolishly gambling their money or life and limb out of greed or thrills, people should listen to their Higher Self and follow their intuition out of love for self and others to take calculated risks and win in the game of life (see The Game of Life).