Have you ever seen that “Survivorman” show? The expert survivor-guy gets dropped into various hostile environments and has to “survive” his way through to get to his pick up spot a week or so later. He has to beat off bears, jaguars and a vicious foot fungus or two. Scary. And gross. For food he usually ends up digging up a mound of termites or slapping a pile of slugs between a couple of exotic cattails. I can’t imagine (in my own motherhood-survival-type life) going through a fast-food drive-through and ordering myself a delicious slug and cattail hoagie. Nor can I really imagine the speaker crackling back, “Would you like termites with that?” NOT my idea of lunch. Not even with a side French-fried termites.

Let me just tell you that I’m about as far from a survivor-girl as you can get. I won’t even taste the garnish when I’m at a nice restaurant–even if there’s fruit on top. I think about the most “survivor-esque” thing I’ve been known to do is to use my tracking skills to hunt down the stash of Oreos–while my teenagers are still in the house. Now that’s risky, man.

Life involves taking risks sometimes. Risking rejection for standing for Christ? That’s not only a wise risk, but something we can do boldly and unashamedly. Paul said in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith” (HCSB). Nothing makes life sweeter than living it by faith. Not even Oreos.

Rhonda Rhea rrhea@juno.com