Three words; down through history these three words have caused such a tremendous impact on so many lives. From moms and dads to children, from best friends to worst enemies, young and old, from sea to shining sea, these three little words span the world’s continents. In any language spoken or written, it’s a universal phrase, learned from the time of our youth and carried through our adult life. These three little words transcend the philosophical, intellectual, inter lingual gap of our cultures. You can hear these words uttered from the mouths of child to child, parent to child, wife to husband, teacher to student (and in some cases student to teacher) nation to nation, God to humanity!

I’m sure you have guessed by now the three little words I’m speaking about. The prolific effects as a result caused by the action produced from these words are equally as immense. Fights, injuries, hospitalizations, traffic violations and citations, involvement of the police, fire department, emergency medical techs, or all three at once.

Yes, those three little words we all know so well ….. “I Dare You!”

I dare you; these three little words opened up a whole new world of exhilaration and introduced me to the power of peer pressure. Down through the years I’ve learned to harness this mysterious power of “the dare”, including its counterparts double and triple dogs. The power to make a normal kid or adult do something totally abnormal and idiotic which could result in possible injury or even worse, just by introducing these three small words into the conversation has become a delight to many a You Tuber, you know this to be true.

But alas, I must admit, I have fallen prey to the occasional “Dare” down through the years, and have plundered a many a fellow through the folly of “the dare” also. The more I think about it, it’s a lot like games we devise for teenagers to play in the youth department.

Even now I’m reminded of various “stunts” we have performed down through the years, for example…

The Dare: To turn the lights out in the gym and while in the pitch blackness of the abyss without the removal of obstacles (such as basketballs, volleyballs, chairs, tables, mop buckets, volleyball net…you get the picture) have a fire extinguisher war….kids, DO NOT TRY THIS!!!!!

The Result: I could tell you now, but that would take all of the suspense out of the story… you’ll just have to wait for “the rest of the story”.

And here is the best part, The Prize: The same thing that is always won from surviving “the dare”, the right to claim a superiority of stupidity over all of your close friends, which by the way, put you up to doing whatever stupid thing warranted “the dare” in the first place, which I might add is also a part of my philosophy on the “Circle of Stupidity”, of which you will just have to wait for another article to learn about.

There is also a place or title granted to those who for whatever reason do not accept the terms of “the dare”, a labeling if you will, that for the most part of their young adult life will be added as a portion of their name, personal property, locker, school newspaper, flyers, banners and billboards, if the funding is available.

We have probably all, at some time or another, been faced with the challenge of accepting or declining the terms of the dare. Not all dares are bad though.

Did you know that all through the Bible we have several instances of challenges issued to us from the Lord?

Did you know that in the Bible there are times where we can issue challenges to God? Did you know that we – are also encouraged from the Bible to challenge each other at times? Can you think of any instances? Malachi 3, Judges 6, Psalm 26, Hebrews 10, James 1, just to name a few.

From time to time I have issued challenges to our teens to encourage them to be more dedicated to the Lord. A few years ago we focused on what I called the 60/60 challenge. It was a wonderful tool to help us evaluate where our prayer life was and to encourage us to try to improve upon it. I still try to practice it as I’m reminded often how we need to spend more time in prayer with the Lord. Maybe the reason we don’t have enough time in our day is because we don’t give Him enough time of our day.

So our current challenge is this: 30 Days of Light, as we considered what new challenge to bring to our people to encourage a closer relationship with the Lord, we felt that this challenge was a most valuable one. I believe that there is a special blessing reserved for those Christians dedicated enough and willing to accept the challenge.

Thirty Days of Light is simply going by a schedule on the back of a bookmarker we designed and passed out to the entire church on Easter Sunday, to read through the New Testament in thirty days. Did you know that if you read approx 9 chapters a day, which takes about the same amount time it takes you to glance through the newspaper, or catch the morning news (about 45 min) you can read through the New Testament in thirty days?

The Bible says in Revelation 1:3, Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Well, the time – is at hand, if you are not reading your Bible faithfully, I encourage you to take the challenge and start now, because, the time – is at hand. If you want to see God do great and wonderful things in your life, take the challenge, because, the time – is at hand. If you don’t think that there is enough time in your day to do this, take the challenge, because, the time – is at hand. If you think that you are doing enough for the Lord already, why not take the challenge, because, the time – is at hand.

There are some things in this life worth taking the challenge for. The time – is at hand, Take the challenge and see what God will do in your life take the challenge .… I DARE YOU!