Now you have a choice to make. You can keep your salt in the saltshaker, your light under the basket. No one will criticize or reject your salt for its flavor if you do. No one will criticize or reject your light for its appearance if you do. That is definitely the safest thing to do today. Make sure Jesus is your Savior, that you'll be in heaven. Worship and serve him in the church, among fellow Christians. Do your religious duty, but nothing more. If you're looking for safety and security, do just that.

But know this: no risk, no reward. Not in heaven, or on earth. Not in your faith, or your life. Your life won't matter, now or when it's done. You'll miss the joy of Christianity, the abundant life Jesus came to give us. We love God by loving our neighbor. We serve Jesus by serving others. When we breathe out, we can breathe in. When we give, we can receive. When we share our faith, we grow in our faith. Serving others serves Jesus. And it serves us as well.

The next time you have a chance to serve effectively, to evangelize joyfully, to pay a price for your faith, to suffer for your Savior, remember this: no risk, no reward.

If you want your life to matter, you have to take a chance. The only people who can change the outcome of a basketball game are the players on the court. Not those on the sideline. Not the spectators in the stands. Only those willing to take the risk, to face the possibility of failing, to withstand the criticism of those who only watch--they are the only ones who make a difference. No one else.

That's why Dirk Nowitzki is my favorite Dallas Mavericks player. I realize that I'm not the only fan who feels that way. But my admiration for Dirk may be a bit different from some.

You may not know his story. Dirk was playing in Germany when Don and Donnie Nelson found him. He signed a contract to play in the NBA, in Dallas. He was 19 years old, spoke almost no English, and had never seen Dallas. Many of us have sons or daughters the same age. Can you imagine sending yours to Germany to do what Dirk did here?

He was too skinny for the NBA, the critics said. He'd never make it. But from the beginning, he wanted the ball. He wanted to take the shot when the game was on the line. He still does. The other night he took the ball with four seconds left, his team down by a point. He drove to the basket and was fouled (at least in the opinion of all of us who watched impartially). The foul wasn't called, and his team lost. But he'll want the ball the next game, and the next. Because he knows a simple fact: if you don't shoot, you can't score.

Because he'll take a risk, he's our best player. And the NBA's player of the month, for the second time this year. And a candidate for Most Valuable Player in the league. And Time.com’s person of the week. Not because he makes every shot, but because he'll take every shot. No risk, no reward. Great risk, great reward. It's just that simple.

Hear again Teddy Roosevelt's famous quote:

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually try to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

No risk, no reward. Great risk, great reward. The next time you have a chance to pay a price for following Jesus, remember that fact. And choose well.