Outrageous // Day Three

What's the biggest problem with the American Dream? You have to be asleep.

 

 

All over the country, people are waking up. More than a house, a car, and 2.5 kids, what we truly yearn for is a life of possibility, potential, and adventure. We believe God is able to do more than we hope or imagine, but we're stuck living in the tension between our ordinary life and the extraordinary adventures that might be just around the corner.

 

This track comes from globe-trotting athlete, Aaron Tredway’s new book, Outrageous.

 

When you complete each daily assignment from the track on the Catalyst App, you will be entered in to win a copy of his book and an Outrageous sticker! There are 5 copies available!

 

Even in positions of leadership and influence, it’s not hard to lose the path of adventure. Aaron offers news of liberation from a life without purpose, calling us to pursue lives of unexpected opportunity amid our everyday circumstances.

 

Over the next few days, you will be challenged to wake up and embrace a faith that can move, shape, and propel you to love God and those you lead and interact with daily with greater significance.

 

You in?

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DAY 3 – Extraordinary

 

Despite the routine that often characterizes my everyday experience, I’m still convinced that the life of faith is supposed to be something more.

 

I think that’s what Jesus was about. He wanted people to experience more than our everyday life can offer. Jesus had a name for the type of life he wants for people—abundant. I like to think of the life Jesus offers as outrageous. I know, outrageous is a pretty, well, outrageous word, but I think it describes the abundant life Jesus often spoke of.

 

Something outrageous is unconventional, extravagant, or remarkable; it surpasses all reasonable bounds. Sure, my life doesn’t always feel extravagant or remarkable, but maybe it should.

 

Maybe if we were a little more awake to the opportunities, events, and adventures Jesus wants for us, our life would look and feel different. Maybe we were created to live an outrageous life, even though our everyday experiences might not always seem entirely outrageous in the moment.

 

I’ve noticed that Jesus seemed to define an outrageous life by different standards than most of us do. Those who knew them best described many of his first followers as “unschooled, ordinary men” (see Acts 4:13), but when they decided to follow Jesus, his first followers seemed to leave the ordinary behind.

 

The book of Acts alone is filled with stories of these seemingly ordinary people doing outrageous, extraordinary things.

 

In the New Testament, Acts 3 records a story about a man named Peter and his friend John, who were walking into a church at three o’clock in the afternoon when they saw a man who was unable to walk from birth. The man was sitting in front of the church, begging, as he always did. So when the man saw Peter and John, of course, he asked them for money. But money is not what Peter gave him; instead he looked directly at the man and said, “In the name of Jesus, walk!”

 

And the man immediately jumped to his feet for the first time in his entire life, and he walked. I think that’s outrageous

 

Reflect: Looking back at your answers to Day 1, what would living awake and outrageously ideally look like for those same activities? Share in the comments below.