I’d like to start with a simple story:
Once upon a time, there was a judge whose reputation was spotless. He was perhaps the most respected man in town and was treated with great honor. Just like any other day, the man walks downtown from his usual parking spot to pick up coffee before heading to his office. He sees a man looking particularly lonely on the side of the street, so the judge strikes up a conversation with him and quickly realizes that the man he was speaking to had been a part of a group that cheated other families in that community on business deals. The judge humbly buys the man coffee after the conversation, and later that same evening, the judge goes over to this man’s simple home for dinner along with his roommates who also had lost their jobs from the activities they were involved in.
The following week, the local news was filled with protests surrounding the local courthouse. A mother who had been known for having a drug issue, neglected her infant child who is now being hospitalized for head trauma. The woman was found not guilty during trial. As the judge walked by the protestors, they called out to him although he was not assigned this particular case. He stood before the masses and shouted, “Go away you fools, for unless you can review the past day you had and see perfection, you have no right to be making these statements.”
In a lonely court room, there stood a man facing accusations of second degree murder. Tears streamed from his eyes as he plead guilty to the charges stacked against him. He held enough shame that he could not lift his head to look at the judge or the family that represented the state. After finding the man guilty and sentencing him to the death penalty, the judge struck the incident from his record and took the convicts punishment upon himself- taking the place of the man sentenced for murder.
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I don’t know about you, but I haven’t personally witnessed any of these scenarios- not even anything close. And if I did, I would think the judge is crazy, counter cultural, or radical. It’s crazy because it is different that what you would expect. Perhaps you caught on, however, these stories are modern day twists on biblical stories (Mark 2:13-17 Jesus eats with the tax collectors, John 8:1-11 Jesus saves a woman who committed adultery, Mathew 27:23-56 Jesus pays the ultimate price of being crucified). It’s easy to overlook how crazy Jesus’s actions were. They took place thousands of years ago, something we were not a personal witness to and a culture we are far removed from. My modern-day rendition of a few biblical accounts of Jesus hopefully sheds light on the radical and “crazy” nature of his love. Amen!
Jesus was crazy because he was obedient to his purpose and how God was calling him to love. The Bible is filled with dozens of crazy stories with people who say yes to God when he calls: Abraham nearly sacrificing his first born son, the disciples dropping everything they own to follow Jesus, ect. And you know what? ALL of those stories ended up bringing huge honor to God and changing the hearts of people who are involved.
Many have suggested that my lifestyle might be crazy, especially over the past year as I have completely re-routed my life, sacrificed more than I ever expected, and took on huge risks. For many months I continued to let myself be wrapped in a mindset that this path I have been pursing was bad- that I am just some crazy girl who throws her life up in the air to do reckless things. I believed the lies that I had been told and even started to tell them to myself. This past week, God showed me through my teammates, mentors, and the holy spirit, that maybe those people are right- maybe I am crazy in pursing my calling- but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Each one of us is blessed and built with different strength and fruits of the spirit, maybe the ability to say yes to radical change, go against the grain, and throw my future up into the hands of God is a strength that brings honor to his name and love to his people.
The enemy constantly attacks our spirit and wants to feed us with lies. Sometimes we can give the enemy so much power that we are tricked into thinking that our greatest gifts from God are a bad thing! How crazy is that?! Spending quality time with God and in community with others who are in love with him help us to strip those lies away. I am so thankful for the amazing new family I met at training camp, along with the millions of lessons I took away from the week!
