Rebellion

I’ve heard Christ called a rebel (cheers to unpleasant labels!). And I’ve read Paul writing “do not conform to this world”. So I should just follow my gut and do what I know I want to do, right?

Today, I believe the answer is wrong.

Jesus was in the temple when his parents didn’t expect it. His defense: “don’t you know I should be in my father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). I read these lines this morning and couldn’t hold some part of my soul back from stretching itself out of my body with such yearning to be free. I wanted to get up and run and tell my mother, my mentors, my family, my friends “People! Look! This is who I am, this is what I was made to do, this is what Christ said, so LET ME BE!”

Let me be selfish, let me be ungrateful, let me be irresponsible, let me be irrational, let me be insane. This is how I was made and this is how I will be. I am wonderfully and fearfully made, and God has a plan for me, not for evil but for hope and a great future that no eye has seen nor ear heard!

Oh wait, the passage continues:

⁵⁰They couldn’t understand what he said…

⁵¹Then he went down with them…and was obedient to them.

WHAT!? *yearning-stretching soul snaps back on elastic cord* Look, this is Jesus Christ of Nazareth we’re talking about here. He knew God like, like no one had even imagined a human being could know God. His parents could not understand the things he knew! And still he went. Like, hello!? WHAT was WRONG with him!?

So I sat there at the foot of my bed, staring at the words, my eyes popping.

*dejected face-palm*

You know what? I think his time hadn’t come. He was twelve. It took him not another ten, not fifteen, but eighteen years to get there. And after that? Well!

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It’s misty out, and I see only the shadow of the second step. But I see that shadow without a doubt. I’m gonna put my foot there.