“And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom.” –William Wallace, Braveheart
I’d like to tell you about my friend named Peggy.
She's more like a second mom. Really! That's why my brother Thomas and I call her LG. It stands for "legal guardian." While Mom and Dad were helping me move into Furman my freshman year Thomas was starting his junior year of high school staying at Peggy's. So on all the forms that had to be filled out by parent or "legal guardian," there was Peggy’s signature.
She’s not our real legal guardian of course, but it’s an inside joke none of us have ever thought of correcting, because, well, she might as well be.
Peggy is, too say the least, a little bit crazy. In all the best ways. She has a nickname for everyone. For example, I’m M and Thomas is T (at one point I was dating a girl named Emily, so Peggy loved to talk about M&Em, like the candy.) She knows everyone in Brentwood, and has firefighters on speed dial should she ever need anything. She is eternally on a caffeine high, but I’m not sure she drinks coffee. When I think of someone who loves life, I think of Peggy.
And up until a couple weeks ago, she had two basset hounds, Honey and Truman (Truey for short.) Two weeks ago Honey passed along to Doggy Heaven after living a good long life. Their favorite thing to do as long as I’ve known these dogs was to try and get out when you opened the back gate. They were good at it! And once they were out, no animal could move four stubby little legs faster.
So Peggy developed three rules to live by (a Three Commandments to Life kind of thing):
1.
DON’T let the dogs out!!
2.
Always be ready to party!
3.
Safety third
It is by these rules that Peggy lives her life. And you know what? I think she’s on to something.
Growing up, I remember hearing those words, “Safety first boys!” from my parents, and grandparents, and teachers, and camp counselors. Pretty much every adult who could say it did say it.
So that’s how we grow up. We’re a people of safety. We minimize risk of danger or pain. We insulate ourselves. (Example: whenever churches, and especially youth groups, leave for mission trips, what happens just before getting on the van or bus? Everyone gathers around and prays. And what for? That God will keep us safe!)
But great stories rarely involve safety. God’s stories rarely involve safety. More often than not in fact, earth-shaking stories carry INCREDIBLE danger. They involve taking UNFATHOMABLE risks. They involve looking right into their fears and worries and facing them head on.
There is the story of Moses, walking straight into Egypt, where the Pharaoh wants to kill him. He was PETRIFIED, but God told him to go, so he went.
There is the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. who stood up to face of nation of hate and fight against it not with hate, but a radical love the likes of which the world only very rarely catches a quick glimpse.
There is the story of Linda Leathers, my aunt, who started to ask where God could send her. And with a little faith and a lot of conviction she left her post as the singles minster of First Baptist Church of Nashville to start The Next Door, a community committed to restoring the beauty and value of women coming out of prison.
There are thousands of stories of people listening to that nudge in their stomach telling them there is more. It’s the same nudge a ten-year-old feels when he sees a thirty-foot cliff along the edge of a lake: that could be great! The difference is a ten-year-old hasn’t been conditioned yet to think about the risks. His most important emotion is the thrill that will come in the free-fall before crashing into the water. That’s why kids have more broken bones than adults! They just DO things. They take risks. The greatness is far more exciting than the risks. Safety third!
This was who Jesus was. Somewhere we watered Jesus down to a simple command: believe in him and keep on keeping on. But that’s not the story of the gospels. Jesus told his disciples to grab on and hold on for dear life. He told them to grab their cross because their run could end at any second. There’s a great story where a rich young guy approaches Jesus and says, “I want to be your disciple. I want to follow you.” And what does Jesus say? “Come on in man. Join the ride. Just, before you do, go sell everything you have, and come on and join the party!” WHAT?!?!
Jesus needs a new P.R. guy! I wouldn’t do that! I would’ve done like the rich kid did and tucked tail and gone back to live as normal. But this was just what Jesus did. “Come on, it’s going to be quite an adventure!” He was always inviting people into this crazy story, and safety was always third.
But isn’t that who we’ve become? Haven’t we set up our lives to minimize the dangers and risks? Have we become so caught up in maintaining our status quo because there is comfort in the known and risk in the unknown? Has making it day-to-day become good enough? Have we cushioned ourselves with enough security in our education and relationships and work that we’ve eliminated the need for faith? Most days I have.
But I’m convinced that Peggy’s rules are much more in line with life to the fullest. If you’re like me, there’s a nudging in your gut that life could be GREAT! Bob Goff calls it whimsy, “that nagging idea that life could be magical; it could be special if we were only willing to take a few risks.” So what’s stopping you? What’s stopping me? What if we run after whimsy together to see how we can change the world, or maybe just add a little light to those around us? Because something tells me if we all start living a story like that, the status quo of getting through the day just won’t be good enough anymore. No one can settle for good enough once they’ve tasted great. Safety third!
forever unfinished <><
