When Safe Doesn't Belong

Piggy backing on my thoughts from yesterday, I wanted to share a quote from General William Tecumseh Sherman: “Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”

There are things that are by their very nature risky, and seeking to make them safe is a recipe for a catastrophe. While General Sherman was referring to war and the greatest of human conflicts, the wisdom goes far beyond such extreme examples. It could be conflict between you and another person, maybe a spouse or a loved one or even a colleague. Maybe a clash between right and wrong, good and evil. Perhaps even a battle within your own soul. These skirmishes are never going to be easy and safe, but they are often necessary.

We must learn to be okay with the fact that easy and safe may be more destructive than hardship and danger. Seeking to eliminate risk where it is fundamentally inherent to the task at hand is a dangerous mission indeed.

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