Peace is The Opposite of Security

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It has been occurring to me lately that safety is not something I'm supposed to be concerned about because concern for my security is what often keeps me from living biblically and loving the way Jesus loved. Jesus himself seems to have little regard for safety, fasting for 40 days, not giving a defence for himself at his trial, speaking out against powerful figures, eating with the lowest of the low, and being homeless. His instructions to his disciples mirror this tendency.

Since high school, a prominent question on my heart has been, "What is the difference between those who follow Jesus and those who do not?" Honestly, most of the "differences" I have come across have been unsubstantial and inconsistent - certainly nothing to get too excited over.

I'm thinking maybe the difference is supposed to be that, just like in the Bible, with Jesus, his apostles and the prophets, God really does want us to risk our lives - figuratively AND physically. I'm thinking maybe true faith is supposed to be dangerous in its experimentation, that its ab0ut more than attempting to be a decently nice person in your day to day life and having a cosmic shoulder to cry on.

I don't mean to say that I'm going to try to kill myself. I do mean to say that I'm going to experiment with this idea of loving with literal abandonment of my self to the point where I don't let my own safety stop me from embracing my opporunities to love. I'm going to trust that God will protect me as He sees fit.

Project #1: Going door to door with a couple of friends in my city's poorest neighbourhood to ask if there is any house or yard work we can do for them for the afternoon for free. If nobody in the whole neighbourhood wants give us something to do, we'll pick up garbage off their streets.

I like this idea because its simple, it doesn't cost me any money, its relational and I find it terrifying. At the same time I'm not being entirely irrational (God DID give us brains...) - I won't be alone in this adventure (yay for crazy friends!) and my city's poorest neighbourhood is hardly the slums of India. From what I understand, this neighbourhood consists mostly of people on welfare, new immigrant families with young children and university students. That's not too much to handle for a first time experiment I think. We shall see.