Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Olympic Abandon

The summer between 3rd and 4th grade was awesome. My next door neighbor and I spent the summer participating in the Olympics. Often it was just the two of us and so we had to develop new games like 2 square, rooftop volleyball, and mega-hopscotch. I would wake each morning with eager anticipation of what the days activities might bring. Would we find ourselves in a 2 square grudge match settled in triple sudden death overtime? Would we be pitted against each other in an epic swimming endurance competition? I couldn't tell you how long these epic battles lasted because as we allowed our imaginations to run wild all sense of time was lost. I can tell you that we were called home from time to time eat and to sleep, but that's about all I could tell you.

It was a summer of complete and total abandon and as we gave ourselves over to the Olympics. We went where the competition was, and as best as I can remember I loved every minute of it because it was filled the joy of abandon, of giving yourself over. I was no longer contained by the rules of this world.

Do you remember reading about this in the early chapters of the gospels? As Jesus began his ministry he was rubbing elbows with tax collectors, fishermen, and all kinds of other people. He called out them saying, "Come follow me." Amazingly, with complete abandon, they left what they were doing to follow Jesus. We too are invited into that same sort of abandon, to shed the things of this world and to follow Jesus wherever He may lead us. We are invited to get lost in the joy of abandon, to get lost in the love of Christ. (Please note that it's about following Jesus not going our own way and then inviting Jesus to follow... there is a difference.) It is wild. It is reckless. It is our call.

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