Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sunday, June 13, 2010

On being dangerous.

I just felt like blogging about this, it's been bugging me lately. Also, ah-ha! I am still alive and have not fallen down a well.

A term that gets thrown around a lot in christian circles is the adjective "dangerous". It's usually used in conjunction with doing some of the things that are more likely to get you strange looks for Jesus. Which is really great! Taking the step to think "you know, I am going to move to an impoverished place in the world and devote my life to making their world a better place" and then go on such a journey is a really cool thing. Or even the littler things like "hey, I'm going to bring up God in conversation and maybe try talking to this person about him.". I think that things like that are really important in a faith life. But what bugs me is the word "dangerous" that people use to describe them. For crying out loud! Cougars are dangerous. Driving your monster truck blindfolded is dangerous. Giving lots of money to poor people is not dangerous. Please, use the word "important" or "life-changing" or even "scary", but stop saying dangerous. I am aware that is sounds pretty edgy and cool, like some guy named "Jack" whose top 5 hobbies include: "mountain biking", "working out", "wearing sunglasses", "wearing tank-tops" and "gazing into the sunset at 3/4 posture while looking stoic", but please. Dangerous things are there to harm you. I am at least 99% certain that living for Jesus does not involve harming other people.