Rebel Yell

Some of us like to think of ourselves as rebels. Purple striped hair, tattoos, nose rings, extreme sports, angry music, wild fashion (think Lady Gaga), etc... sometimes little signs we don't want to fit in, sometimes big ones.

Funny thing is even a rebel fits in somewhere.

But, I can tell you a sure fire way to really be a rebel, to stand out like a sore thumb anywhere, to never really fit in. With the business suits or the biker jackets, with the atheist or the Church crowd, these are three steps to make yourself into a total FREAK.

Are you with me?

Step one:
Give up your free will.
What? Zombie time? Join a cult?
No, just decide that all the time everywhere you will bend your will to the will of Christ.
Everyone, I mean Everyone, will think you are crazy. "Christians" included.
You will hear the following:

"You stayed with that husband, because it's the right thing to do? You know that's not a good example for your kids. How are they going to know how to have healthy relationships?"

"You did not take that job because God lead you not to? I think you misunderstood."

"You're building a boat, but there's no water for miles around?"- okay maybe not that one, but a rebel like Noah got his share of rolled eyes.

Step two:
Love your enemies.
Treat the person who cuts you off in traffic well, the one who ignores you with courtesy, the one who talks about you with honor. Loan without expecting it back.

Everyone no matter what group they belong to, treats their friends well. Serial killers have friends, whom they treat well. That's nothing to be proud of. (Matthew 5:43-47)

Ah, but kindness to an enemy- Weird, wacky, insane.
St. Patrick returns to Ireland after being a kidnapped slave there to share the love of God with the people.
Corrie Ten Boom shakes the hand of a German guard seeking forgiveness after her whole family dies in concentration camps he worked in.
It happens once in a blue moon and those times my friends are radical. RADICAL.

Step three:

Understand that "Impossible" is a word in the English language, not a universal law.

I cannot let go of my will or love my enemies. Cannot.
I have this hole. You have it too. You have felt it. It's in your soul. It's deep and has jagged edges. You like to keep it in the corners of your mind because it's scary and vast.

One day I opened my arms to The God of the Universe and beyond. He took His essence, His spirit from the outer reaches of all existence and gathered it together and began to pour it into that hole. He poured it until it filled the hole and began to splash and slosh out all over the place. It filled every crevice of that hole. There wasn't a place it could not reach or a crack it would not fit into. It pushed out dirt and grime that had gathered in that trench.

Now with all that All Powerful Being sloshing around in me, I can do things that, well, frankly just aren't me.
The less I resist Him and the more I pull on those jagged edges to make room, the more "not like me" I start to act and impossible begins to feel more like a word and not a universal constant.
(Jeremiah 32:27)