BADASS CHRISTIANITY
You may not like hearing the term “badass” from a Christian. Of course you could use the word “defiant” instead, but I think badass says what I need to say much better. Besides, isn’t “sanitized language” occasionally part of the problem? I always thought that being a Christian means you should be able to deal with any subject without acting like a wimp.
One caveat: being a badass in this sense never means you are to be a bully. I know of no situation where Jesus was ever a bully. Jesus confronted many people, but He did not bully them. In fact, if we are going up against people there is a very good chance we have selected the wrong target.
There is a reason I like the word badass. Although my faith was once an unexpected gift of great joy, I fight to maintain it. There are those who would deny I am a Christian because I do not and cannot live as they think I should. They are wrong of course. My failings aren't the problem. The problem is that too many times I have let other put me on the defensive.
Also, my own emotions are damaged. For may years I could not believe God’s grace covered me. Whatever limit to God’s patience I thought there was, for some reason I always imagined myself one step over the line. Yes, this was after I became a Christian. Took me a long while to realize I had to choose between trusting God and trusting my emotions. Was it really God whispering in my ear that God had given up on me? Maybe it was something else.
So this is what I mean by being a badass. It means owning your faith and asserting every bit of grace you can. You use it when others challenge you and you use it when the voices that oppose you come from within. Warning: Becoming a badass Christian may result in your wanting to take on challenges that you cannot imagine yourself wanting to accept before.
I believe Jesus was a badass. So many times He did things that no one else would dare to do. Imagine going out and finding some social outcast to have dinner with. Imagine standing up to the religious authorities and telling them that what they were doing was wrong. Imagine showing mercy where everyone else wants judgment. Thats a badass.
