How to become a ‘Renegade for God’

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Renegades buck at being tamed. They see religion as the denial of desire and ambition. And that sucks because desire and ambition are the two commodities we have in abundance. The Renegade's active mind thinks, wonders, dreams, and imagines better days and bigger things. We're not interested in sitting in rows of church pews like little clones looking at the back of other cloned heads in a robotic Sunday morning nod to God. We won't be "told" what to do or "commanded" how to behave. For us, compliance and conformity are the ultimate sellouts. We want to give our entire heart, mind and soul to something bigger than ourselves. Renegades know we need to do things better, but we live to do better things.

They don't want a small, simple, or safe 9 to 5 life. They want a big, bold, exciting, life; one more like an adventure, a quest, or a roller-coaster ride with God at the helm with better days and great victories ahead. We want to go way beyond good into great. We yawn at safe. We yearn for dangerous! We have William Wallace's confession, in the movie Braveheart, "All men die, but not all men really live!" tattooed across the front of our brains.

Renegades loathe being lumped together in a homogenized herd. In this way they're like cats, they can't be herded but they can be led. They don't join monolithic groups of people who may or may not represent their own heart commitments. In other words, renegades don't like labels. They don't like one denomination or group lording over everyone else. They don't like being divided by what really seems to be trivial matters. They like large groups of interesting, diverse people. They like movements aimed at achieving greatness motivated by larger-than-life ideas, not petty arguments over outdated allegiances. Renegades also fear being limited. They won't listen to longwinded, red-faced preachers telling them what they can or cannot do. Their wild heart tells them a well-lived life can't be built on a negative foundation or a long list of religious cliches. Sermons on the evils of smoking, drinking, movie-going, the clothes we shouldn't wear, or the theme parks we should boycott seem insulting.

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The renegade cry
The renegade's heart cries to live free, have fun, and change the world. Freedom is what we want and from Jesus freedom is exactly what we get.

Renegades long to be free from rote religious rules and regulations. The idea of rules is not the hang-up here, but their meaning must be rooted in love. Wherever love is the ethic and gratitude is the motivation, you can expect Renegades to gather. Jesus frees us from the pain of the past and the regrets we have over the things we should've but didn't do. As the Scriptures say, "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love" (Gal. 5:13).

I almost want to apologize on this one, because fun is so trivialized in the minds of religious people. But fun is exactly what we crave and without it our lives dry up, our relationships crack up, and our jobs become jails. Southwest Airlines has adopted as its recruiting slogan, "Feel free to actually enjoy what you do." Fun lubricates the friction of the mundane and routine. The renegade wants to have fun because he believes loving God and living in His wonderful world is a privilege, not a right. When God looks at me, He smiles. Dare I do less when I look back?

No one I went to church with as a kid would mistake it for a fun time. I'm not advocating a frenetic, frivolous, self-serving emotionalism here. I'll never forget the Tuesday morning I was called to report to the seminary president's office. He came to hear me speak the Sunday before and man did he intimidate me sitting there looking presidential. I thought, "He was so impressed, he wants me to speak at chapel?" I was ushered into his office. Sitting behind his over-sized mahogany desk, leaning back in his high backed, overstuffed red leather chair, he said, "I heard you speak this weekend and your sermon was nice." "Nice" is not the word I was hoping for. He said, "Son, you have a big choice to make. You have a gift to be funny, but humor has no place in the pulpit. You can either be a comedian or a preacher, not both. You're dismissed." I was stunned, embarrassed, and mortified. I left his office feeling emasculated, fighting back tears. I continued to respect him for the godly man I knew him to be, but from that day on I was deaf to his influence. Why? Because, though I couldn't argue with him, my gut told me he was wrong-dead wrong.

Laughter is as necessary as air. It is a gift from God and when the Bible says a cheerful heart is like medicine, it is right on. What I'm calling fun, the kind which shakes the soul awake, the Bible calls joy. Joy is the reality of Jesus experienced and expressed here in the real world. Life is difficult and it's not always fun, but if you're not having any fun at all then you've been hoodwinked. Because living, loving, and serving Renegade Jesus is fun. And how could it be anything less? If Jesus is who He claimed to be, then there's no way you can be somber, sad, and serious all the time. In Christ, we're wanted, loved, and free. God's love paid a debt He did not owe-that's plenty enough reason to shout-Yea God! After all, the largest book in the Bible is a songbook. You can't sing all of those songs as a dirge. Sometimes they're an anthem and a march. David was a musician before he got into politics. On one occasion, he was filled with so much fun and he danced so hard down the middle of Main Street his clothes fell off (see 2 Sam. 6:20-22). Religious people frowned on it then and if you dare dance today, they'll frown on you. But not to worry; God's got rhythm and He definitely invented soul.

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How to become a ‘Renegade for God’