How to become a ‘Renegade for God’

In 2005, for the first time since records have been kept, people participating in sports and exercise programs decreased while attendance at all sporting events rose. We are losing our drive, because we're losing the belief that one life can change the world. That's one of the battle cries of the Renegade life. We are not consumers; we are world-changers. We wake up every day with the conviction that how we live today does make all the difference.

The J-life is a life of action. We are so hungry for it we deify athletes and actors who portray it. We watch extreme sports to live vicariously through those who refuse to be couch potatoes or pewwarming wannabe's. R4G's are tired of being over-stimulated and under-involved; over-stressed and under-stretched. We won't settle for being over-weight and under-challenged.

As a Renegade for God, I refuse to sit on the sideline watching things happen. I want Jesus to place me on the crest of God's new wave. I won't be here long so I dedicate my life to fulfilling God's divine design for me. As Jesus lives and loves through me, I will meet needs, right wrongs and run to the eye of the storms. "It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian," laments Roy Hattersley, a columnist for the U.K. Guardian. An outspoken atheist, Hattersley came to this conclusion after watching the Salvation Army lead several other faith-based organizations in the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina.

"Notable by their absence," he writes, were "teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers' clubs, and atheists' associations-the sort of people who scoff at religion's intellectual absurdity." Hattersley concluded Christians "are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others."

"The only possible conclusion," says Hattersley, "is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me."

Wow, what a statement! And what is the moral superiority the R4G displays most proudly? It is the ability to rally to action when compassion thrusts us to the frontline as first-responders.

Using Jeff Foxworthy's famous tagline, "You might be a redneck if ..." as a starting point, let me just say, as we travel along this road to finding life outside conventional Christianity, you might be an R4G (Renegade for God) if you want to live an expanding life; where you're totally free to become all that God's love, God's gifts, and your willingness to work hard and prevail, can make of you. If you want to have fun, smile a lot, lighten up, and live the joy-filled life Jesus promised, you might be an R4G. If you want to seize your divine moment to fulfill your destiny; if you believe God made you for this moment in time, you might be an R4G.

Jesus came to love you and give you life. He did not die to make you religious, but to give you a new heart. Because nothing changes until your heart changes, and the heart never changes by itself, we need help. Jesus' death and resurrection is God's promise fulfilled. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36:26). And this new freed-up, joy-filled heart of flesh doesn't tame, shame, limit, or lump easily. Instead, it sets the R4G in us free to be an agent of change with a message of hope for a world in pain.

As R4G's we will dedicate ourselves to living a Christ-centered, grace-empowered, mission-driven life. We will jam-pack our lives with other happy people who ache to be wave-makers in the dangerous, uncivilized Renegade Nation. Our corporate mission is the fueling and funding of a global revolution aimed at the radical reclamation of the human heart. We are driven by a relentless, passionate pursuit of the divine scandal-namely-every life matters to God.

The R4G cry
Late in his life John Steinbeck, winner of the Nobel Prize, decided to travel across the country. He wanted to explore the human condition and chronicle his discoveries. His friends warned him it was too late in his life for such a quest. Of their objections he wrote, "I had seen so many begin to pack their lives in cotton wool, smother their impulses, hood their passions and gradually retire from their manhood into a kind of spiritual and physical semi-invalidism. In this, they were even encouraged by their wives and relatives, and it's such a sweet trap."

Steinbeck knew the potential problems of driving thousands of miles alone in a truck with only his dog. But as he said, he was not about to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage. His adventures are recorded in Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Much of it portrays the sad, cellophane age we live in, so safe and sterile, and the profound consequences of such lifelessness. He noted, "It was all plastic too-the table linen, the butter dish, the sugar and crackers were wrapped in cellophane, the jelly in a small plastic coffin sealed with cellophane. It was early evening and I was the only customer. Even the waitress wore a sponge apron. She wasn't happy, but then she wasn't unhappy. She wasn't anything."

Steinbeck observed how insulated our society has become and how mediocrity overtakes us little by little, day by day. Before leaving, a well-known political reporter said, "If anywhere in your travels you come on a man with guts, mark the place. I want to go see him. I haven't seen anything but cowardice and expediency. This used to be a nation of giants."

God is looking for men and women to be giants in the land of the dying. Imagine the unlikely, against-all-odds miracles Jesus performed through the first little band of feeble followers. They were the definition of ordinary. They had no money, no connections, and no master plan. Jesus didn't write a manual or give them detailed instructions. He simply sent them out to tell what they'd seen and to give away what He gave them-new life. In the Book of Acts, Jesus welcomed those who gathered in the upper room to the revolution. It would start in Jerusalem and spread like a love virus to Judea, and then like a world-wide tsunami, the J-life slowly covers the known world. Jesus made them different and that difference is still making all the difference.

In 1997, Apple came out with an ad campaign called "Think Different." The commercials were short clips of influential figures in the twentieth century. They included Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, Alfred Hitchcock, Pablo Picasso, and several others. In the background was Richard Dreyfuss reading the following:

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things, they push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
— Apple Computer, Inc. commercial "Think Different"

The renegade's cry will guide us along this non-religious road to real. I will, by the power of Jesus Christ, live free-free from the bondage of past shame, past guilt, and free from past prejudices and put-downs. I will have fun every day understanding that the joy of the Lord is my strength as I walk in the real world power of the resurrected Christ. Death has been defeated because the love of Jesus paid the bill. As an R4G, I am a citizen of the Renegade Nation. Together, we will do the one thing religion can never do-love like Jesus loved, live like Jesus lived, and leave the revolution intact. We won't tolerate anyone wanting to hijack our sacred honor for their religious agenda. We are joined to the revolution Jesus set in motion two thousand years ago-the radical renovation of the human heart.

Welcome to the journey to life outside conventional Christianity, where men and women learn how to live big, bold, bodacious lives. On this road, we do not cower in corners, or spend our lives apologizing for our freedoms, our joys, or our ambitions. Welcome into the sunlight of our Savior Jesus Christ. He loved us back to life, placed a servant's heart in us, and a hero's path before us. Our fight is against anyone who tries to water down Jesus or His radical message; love conquers all. We boldly proclaim "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us [and gave Himself for us]" (Rom. 8:37).

As we walk this non-religious road to real together, we will praise God for our freedom, as well as our future. We're going to see God show up at all our stops along the way, as we discover the majesty and the mystery which is Jesus. You'll experience for yourself the power of the human heart, set free to dream, to dare, to move, to risk everything for love. His aliveness, His realness, and His mission is still shaking the world. After 2,000 years, Jesus is still cool, as He should be, of course. As Jesus people, our challenge is to live out His aliveness in front of a dying world.

Excerpted from “A Renegade's Guide To God: Finding Life Outside Conventional Christianity,” by David Foster. Copyright © 2006 by David Foster. Excerpted by permission of FaithWords, an imprint of Warner Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

MORE FROM THE MYSTERY OF FAITH

The Mystery of Faith Section Front

Video: Role of religion in Americans' lives Video: Eastern religions Video: Evangelicals in America Video: A look at Christianity in America How to become a ‘Renegade for God’ Darfur violence spreads to Chad Ann Curry returns to Darfur's edge Video: Ann Curry reports on tragedy Video: Religious violence increases Video: More of Olmert interview The Mystery of Faith Section Front   Add The Mystery of Faith headlines to your news reader: