Wild Abandon

Happy Thankgiving to you!!!

This Thanksgiving Day I have a million reasons to be grateful (and that is probably not an exagerated number). But this morning, I would like to highlight two reasons (people) that I am particularly grateful for, as their faith is not a compartment of their lives, but transcends every part of it. They are not preachy, staid and stoic, reserving their 'religion' for the suit and tie routine on a Sunday morning.

They are a few of the small number of people that came to mind during this morning's reading (another morning with a small sliver of time for reading...yay!!! Thankful for THAT!) Meet Christopher and Alli Horst at their blog. He is my cousin with whom I share a birthday month...and Alli is his decidedly better half **wink wink**. This past year they moved from a comfy apartment into a 'vintage' hotel that serves as 'home' to those who are in need of it. Chris and Alli serve as a stable, loving presence to those who lives have embodied anything but. While each of us has a unique mision presented to us by our Creator, and all of us are challenged to take up adventures specific to us, very few actually take up the challenge to do so. Chris and Alli are two of the few who have. I greatly admire that, and both Curt and I desire to live with the same abandon. Thank you, God, on this Thanksgiving Day, for giving our lives more dimension and adventure than we even know...and thank you, Chris and Alli, for exemplifying that!

If you care to read a part of the excerpt from my reading this morning, here you are!

What a tragedy. What a misunderstanding of who Jesus is. It was Jesus who taught us how to break the rules. It was Jesus who touched lepers, against the rules. (No one was to touch a leper). It was Jesus who broke the Sabbath against the rules. (The Pharisees had thousands of rules against working on the Sabbath,) It was Jesus who forgave people of their sins, against the rules (Adulters were to be stoned, not forgiven.)

The religious leaders accused Jesus of breaking the rules over and over again. They made it very clear that Messiahs do not touch lepers, work on the Sabbath, forgive adulters, and hang around with 'sinners'. Jesus made it very clear--this Messiah does touch lepers and forgive adulters. This Messiah is wild and serves His Father with abandon. Jesus was the Rule Breaker because He is the Rule Maker. He alone decides what rules are true and what rules are nonsense. That is why we follow Christ with abandon wherever He takes us. He lets us know which rules are for following and which rules are for breaking.

Sounds alarming. Hazardous, even. Exactly! Faith is about recklessly following Jesus wherever He goes. (Notice I said wherever Jesus goes. Reckless abandon does not mean we make the rules and He follows us. Following Christ with abandon does not give us permission to kill those who make rules we don't agree with. Remember, Jesus let the rule monitors use their rules to kill Him.) Genuine faith is hazardous to your health. Better hang on and fasten your seatbelt because following Jesus to the wherevers of life is more precarious than most of us realize. Again, you feel your pulse begin to quicken? Aren't you intrigued, just like a child, to find out more about this daring and treacherous faith?" -Michael Yaconelli, Dangerous Wonder. Chapter 3 "Wild Abandon"