Defiance

For those of you who don't know me, I'm quite the rebel.  Sometimes, I stay up after twelve.  If I'm in a big hurry, I go five miles ABOVE the speed limit.  To top it off, one time, I ate a piece of candy without asking my mom if I could.

My cousin sent me something once that said, "I basically do whatever I want.  As long as my mom says it's okay."  This pretty much describes my life. I'm not a very rebellious person.  I'm a bit of a rule-follower, in fact.  Although I don't really understand the significance behind some rules, I often follow them simply because I'm told to.

But sometimes being a little defiant is a good thing.  Don't jump to conclusions about what I'm saying, this is no "go out and sow your wild oats" speech.  I simply believe there is something burning inside of all of us that makes us long for something more than "because I said so," and in a way, I want to fan that flame.

We want something more than rules and regulations because we were made for something more.  Christianity is often mistaken to be a list of "do's" and "don'ts" that are to be followed without thought or otherwise face the consequences.  Christ lived and died for something so much more than that: for love.  He died that we might defy the world's standards and become something greater.  

Jefferson Bethke put it nicely, "Religion says do, Jesus says done. Religion says slave, Jesus says son."

The commandments of the Bible are still very valuable today, but Christ makes it clear that we are not to follow them simply because they are there.  He tells the disciples in John 14:15, "If you love me, keep my commands."  While this statement does put emphasis on obedience it suggests that it should be a result of love and not a simply something on its own.

The world and our society will always have rules and standards they believe we should abide by.  They will always seek ways to get the questioner of the status quo to step back in line.  But we are called to be something more than rule-followers.

We are called to be truth seekers.  We are called to be prayer warriors.  We are called to be defiant lovers.

We are called to be Christ followers.