Have you ever seen a dog chasing a car? What’s your first
thought? “IDIOT!� Right?
Well, this past weekend, I was mowing the yard and watched
my parent’s dog, Mackey, chase vehicles down the road over and over again. One
after another, he enjoyed each one more than the last.
On and on for a few hours, Mackey chased away… and then it
finally hit me, I don’t blame him! Why would any dog want to sit on the porch
all of his life and be a boring dog!? I don’t blame him for wanting to live a
little dangerous! I thought to myself, “We call him ‘bad dog’ but he’s actually
doing what he enjoys, getting a thrill out of it. Seems smart to me!� Granted,
it is quite dangerous but considering his ignorance, you get the point.
It made me think of those that we all know that never ‘get
off the porch’. They live life working their lives away or have ‘paid their
dues’ and don’t do anything worth remembering after that.
I don’t want people at my funeral simply saying, “He sure
did work hard all his life.� Yes, I do want to be remembered as a hard worker,
as my parents instilled in me that ‘virtue’ as one of the greatest
characteristics of a man, but isn’t life much more than working hard?
When I was a young boy, we had a dog named Parrot. Parrot
was a riot! I can remember one morning as we rode off towards school in the
truck, Parrot chased us down and leaped over the side of the bed into the back
of the truck while in full stride at about 20+ mph. Now that’s what I’m talking
about! Parrot was not your ordinary dog; he was fast, could jump and used it
dangerously in conjunction with his passion… being with his family. Those are
the things that we remember best about our dogs, the stories that are worth
telling, the extraordinary ones. Am I right?
Now, I know what some of you are thinking and I want to go
ahead and negate your thoughts of me encouraging going out and doing
‘dangerous’ or ‘stupid’ things. That is far from what I’m saying here…. My
whole point is that there is so much more than what we know. I’m encouraging
you to ‘get off the porch’, chase something you are passionate about (that
doesn’t reap direct benefits for yourself), have fun and live a life that’s
worth remembering, a life of a different value. Let’s go to our graves knowing
we lived our lives for a greater purpose, something so much bigger than ourselves,
not wishing we had done ‘this’ or ‘that’.
Now Jesus, he was a dude that grew up a carpenter’s son. Jesus
was a hard worker, he was a listener, a learner and a teacher… a good one at
that. I’m sure he loved making things with his hands as all men do but he
didn’t go to the tomb with people talking about how great a carpenter he was.
He lived for something greater than himself. He had a passion that was embedded
in him from before the womb, and that was to ‘do as the Father does’ (John
5:19). Jesus paved the way for all who have lived dangerous lives from that
point on. Jesus, one heck of a carpenter, wasn’t consumed in being the ‘best
carpenter in his city’, he was consumed with doing the will of the Father and bringing
the Kingdom of God to earth and doing so by serving, loving on people and being
a ‘bad dog’ by doing things that people didn’t approve of (because it was
controversial and contrary to what they had always done and been taught). If you
ask anyone, Jesus was a guy that ‘got off the porch’.
Following Jesus isn’t safe. Let’s get past the thought that
it is and embrace the fact that the Truth isn’t safe but it’s good and life
giving.
Some of you are carpenters, some teachers, some businessmen,
and some of you are stay at home moms but don’t let that limit you to not
living a dangerous life. If anything, it should compel you all the more to ‘get
off the porch’ and dive into the lives of those that surround you every single
day that haven’t had a chance to meet face-to-face with Redemption himself… and
above all, listen and actively respond.
Listening to Holy Spirit and responding with expectancy of
power is removing ourselves from the ‘ordinary’ and crashing into the adventure
of the unknown as we pursue it. Choosing into the authority and empowerment
that we have been given creates a culture of those who don’t live in pursuit of
being the “best so-and-so in the
city� but those who change the course of history, simply by ‘getting off the
porch’ and operating in our passions and giftings given by the Father… as we
serve.
Are we satisfied with living lives for ourselves? I have yet
to meet a man who was. What if the satisfaction of life comes from living life
unto a greater being like God, the ‘Father’, as Jesus claimed? Would it be
worth it then? Does a life of contentment come from serving God by being
obedient to His mandate on our lives and chasing the passions for his Kingdom that
we have with the gifts we have been given? Do you think this is what satisfies
not only ourselves but God himself as well?
Have you ever eaten something that just tore you up inside?
Yeah, you know that feeling, almost like you have a stomach full of pure ACID (no,
not the good kind). Well, I feel like that sometimes. I feel like that often
actually, and it doesn’t even take food to do it. This is the feeling that I
get when I see someone living under the age-old saying, “this is the way we’ve
always done it� and haven’t lived a life to anyone but themselves, whether
knowingly or not. My stomach churns with agony and my heart hurts for someone
who hasn’t tangibly experienced the heart of God, a touch that changes all. Living
dangerously is exactly what brings the tangible love of God to the untouchable.
My passion is with my people and my people are you. The gifts that I have been given
may look like coaching, teaching, and leadership entangled with a mechanical
mind but could it be that those were given to me not for my own good but for God’s,
to use towards you? I may not know
exactly what my life is going to look like in twenty years and I may not be
able to guarantee you that I will have ‘this amount of money’ in a bank account
but one thing I know, my life is not my own and I will remove myself from the
porch and run towards the dangers of following Jesus, nearing my grave with joy.
If following Jesus is dangerous, then how dangerous is your life? Are you off the porch yet?
