Some people just know exactly the best way to spend the time when the person who’s supposed to meet them for dinner is 45 minutes late… (oh, sorry again about showing up late yesterday, John, but I guess meeting at a pub for dinner has its distinct advantages…)

It’s interesting to hear what different people think of when I mention the phrase “reckless passion” Of course, I love the Winter Olympics at Torino having the tagline “passion lives here!” It’s great! It captures the Italian zest for life wonderfully!

Mediterranean people get it when I say “reckless passion”. Eastern people get it. Southern people get it. Latin people especially get it. New Englanders don’t get it… but they want it

Here’s what Webster has to say about it:

Main Entry: pas·sion
Pronunciation: ‘pa-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin passion-, passio suffering, being acted upon, from Latin pati to suffer — more at PATIENT
1 often capitalized a : the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death b : an oratorio based on a gospel narrative of the Passion
2 obsolete : SUFFERING
3 : the state or capacity of being acted on by external agents or forces
4 a (1) : EMOTION passion is greed> (2) plural : the emotions as distinguished from reason b : intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction c : an outbreak of anger
5 a : ardent affection : LOVE b : a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept c : sexual desire d : an object of desire or deep interest

As with many things in life, it’s always the obsolete entry that speaks volumes.

… oh well, and while I’m at it, I may as well toss out:

Main Entry: reck·less
Pronunciation: ‘re-kl&s
Function: adjective
1 : marked by lack of proper caution : careless of consequences
2 : IRRESPONSIBLE <reckless charges>
synonym see ADVENTUROUS

So this morning I woke up at 2am and just could not go back to sleep

So I stumbled downstairs and puttered around for a bit. As I reflected and mused, my mind wandered to Rich Mullins, and how I had been meaning to post the lyrics for his song about the reckless raging fury of God’s love. That got me thinking about Rich in general, and just how much of an impact his music and writing has had on me.

I wish I had met him, or gotten to hear him speak, or at least seen him in concert. What a life. What a reckless life. What a life well lived!

There had better be a Rich Mullins concert in heaven… I want to be there when Jesus says to Rich: “well done, good and faithful servant.”

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love –a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek–
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Mullins

Some quotes, as only Rich can say them:

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“If you’ve ever known the love of God, you know it’s nothing but reckless and it’s nothing but raging. Sometimes it hurts to be loved, and if it doesn’t hurt it’s probably not love, may be infatuation. I think a lot of American people are infatuated with God, but we don’t really love Him, and they don’t really let Him love them. Being loved by God is one of the most painful things in the world, it’s also the only thing that can bring us salvation and it’s like everything else that is really wonderful, there’s a little bit of pain in it, little bit of hurt.”

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“So go out and live real good and I promise you’ll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you’re dead, you’ll be rotted away anyway. It’s not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn’t live.”

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“Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.”

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“I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people willing to be nuts and bolts.”

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“I think if we were given the Scriptures, it was not so that we could prove that we were right about everything. If we were given the Scriptures, it was to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.”

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“It’s just that for so many people that I know, Christianity’s this matter of … it has everything to do with morals. Christianity is a religion about morals. And they will even talk about Jesus. And they will say kids need to know about Jesus so they won’t smoke, drink, or dance, or go with girls that do, and all that kind of thing. And I kinda go, ‘That’s not why people need to know about Jesus. The only reason—the only possible excuse for talking about Jesus is because we need a Savior.’”

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“We do not find happiness by being assertive. We don’t find happiness by running over people because we see what we want and they are in the way of that happiness so we either abandon them or we smash them. The Scriptures don’t teach us to be assertive. The Scriptures teach us—and this is remarkable—the Scriptures teach us to be submissive. This is not a popular idea.”

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“If you want a religion that makes sense, go somewhere else. But if you want a religion that makes life, choose Christianity.”

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