There's this theory I have, inspired by Soren Kierkegaard's book The Sickness Unto Death, that Christianity should be fatal. It should be the thing that, just like Christ and all but one of His disciples, takes us to the grave.
Or, more accurately, gets us killed.
Now, let's get something straight: None of us are going to live forever anyways. We will all of us die from something. Those people who try to convince you that if you eat right, exercise right, live in the right city, and drive the right kind of car, you'll live longer are missing the entire point: Longer isn't long enough, we all still die.
If life cannot be survived, then we ought to try to do something radically different than trying to delay the inevitable. Maybe we should change the way we look at life, and instead of measuring one's success by how long we live, we should try to live richer lives. I don't know about you, but if the story of my life was being told to my great-grandchildren over a campfire, I wouldn't want them to be bored with a tale of how for thirty years, I made wise business decisions and got rich.
That'd be boring as hell. I'd rather live a life that is so interesting, so adventurous, so far-beyond-the-ordinary, that tales of the misery, pain, and absurdities I struggle with and get through are passed around for generations. Or at least make a posthumous biography that's worth reading once.
This train wreck of a life I've led so far has taught me a lot of things, one of them is that people who lead interesting lives also get more people to listen to them when they've got something to say. The innate curiousity of humanity makes most of us want to know what it's really like to skydive from the lower limits of space, to climb Mt. Everest, or to explore the Challenger Deep.
If life cannot be survived, then we ought to try to do something radically different than trying to delay the inevitable. Maybe we should change the way we look at life, and instead of measuring one's success by how long we live, we should try to live richer lives. I don't know about you, but if the story of my life was being told to my great-grandchildren over a campfire, I wouldn't want them to be bored with a tale of how for thirty years, I made wise business decisions and got rich.
That'd be boring as hell. I'd rather live a life that is so interesting, so adventurous, so far-beyond-the-ordinary, that tales of the misery, pain, and absurdities I struggle with and get through are passed around for generations. Or at least make a posthumous biography that's worth reading once.
This train wreck of a life I've led so far has taught me a lot of things, one of them is that people who lead interesting lives also get more people to listen to them when they've got something to say. The innate curiousity of humanity makes most of us want to know what it's really like to skydive from the lower limits of space, to climb Mt. Everest, or to explore the Challenger Deep.
That guy who has a 20-year chip from AA has something to say to a drunk that a Straight Edge man can't. A guy who's been behind bars can say things to a budding criminal that a cop can't. In my case, I've got some things to say about what it's like to burn out, crack up, and end up in a psych ward that other people simply can't.
So I've got this theory that since I'm going to die anyways, I may as well see how much I can survive first, and what better challenge to undertake then to go to spread the Gospel in a place where that sort of thing can get me shot? To go some place that's considered "too dangerous" by almost everyone, and to go there intentionally to do something that will earn me the death penalty?
Because honestly, since I'm going to die anyways, I want the cause of death to be something cool like "was killed for preaching Christ", not something lame like "Heart attack." Anybody can have a heart attack. Hell, those are actually pretty easy to die from. It takes work to avoid those, I want to die from something that it took work to get killed by.
Something that makes people go "Whoa, he really went all the way, didn't he? I'm impressed!"
See, what I've come to realize is that winning the game of life isn't about surviving, it's about being so awesome at live that your life serves as a fantastic example for other people. Think about all the people who are mentioned in the Bible. Folks like Peter, Paul, Joshua, Moses, and Abraham. None of those guys survived, but all of them are held up as examples for us to learn from and follow, and Christ more than anyone else.
I guess my point, if I really have a coherent point, is that instead of playing it safe, I figure we ought to go out and live the most extreme life possible. What if Christianity stopped concerning itself with arguing objective truths, and we all became some weird form of adrenaline junkies, trying to live lives that were so extreme, so dangerous, so past the red line that the only possible way to survive was for God Himself to step in and break jails open with earthquakes?
What if, instead of hoping that terrorists would get tired of getting bombed, and make baskets instead, I went out and told them about the REAL religion of peace? What if, instead of them wishing peace upon a prophet of hate, they were shown a real-world, in-country example of what it's like to serve the Prince of Peace?
What if, instead of pissing and moaning about countries where it's illegal to talk about Jesus, I ignored those laws with the same level of contempt I treat speed limits, and did it anyways?
What if, instead of waiting around, ticking time off my fingers until I die, I go out, find the biggest lion in the darkest den, yank on his beard, and scream "JESUS LOVES YOU!" to the whole pride?
I guess my point, if I really have a coherent point, is that instead of playing it safe, I figure we ought to go out and live the most extreme life possible. What if Christianity stopped concerning itself with arguing objective truths, and we all became some weird form of adrenaline junkies, trying to live lives that were so extreme, so dangerous, so past the red line that the only possible way to survive was for God Himself to step in and break jails open with earthquakes?
What if, instead of hoping that terrorists would get tired of getting bombed, and make baskets instead, I went out and told them about the REAL religion of peace? What if, instead of them wishing peace upon a prophet of hate, they were shown a real-world, in-country example of what it's like to serve the Prince of Peace?
What if, instead of pissing and moaning about countries where it's illegal to talk about Jesus, I ignored those laws with the same level of contempt I treat speed limits, and did it anyways?
What if, instead of waiting around, ticking time off my fingers until I die, I go out, find the biggest lion in the darkest den, yank on his beard, and scream "JESUS LOVES YOU!" to the whole pride?
