Bad

Sometimes in life you are cast as the bad guy. It doesn't matter if you sign up for the part or not. Sooner or later it happens. That's just the way life is.

You can lament. Feel sorry for yourself… Nash your teeth and cry. That doesn't change things.

You can fight it. You can call people names, flip people the bird, and argue with your rivals... but sometimes fighting a monster turns you into what you are fighting.

Jesus was charged as a radical, as a fool, as a man possessed by a demon... as just a carpenter's son, even as a Samaritan spy. Jesus never shied away from these charges. In fact, at times he seems to enjoy the role.

Instead of hiding on a couch with a pillow over his head, when accusations came his way he responded by blazing the shining light of truth at the world. He attacked them, not with fancy speeches and slick legalism. He told basic stories in everyday language the made his attackers look like fools. That's the trick with the truth... it's easy to mock and taunt, but it's hard to make go away.

If Jesus didn't run from the title of radical then neither will I. I will embrace that yoke. Praise the Lord... I'm a bad guy, too!

Bad
U2

If you should ask then maybe they'd
Tell you what I would say
True colors fly in blue and black
Bruised silken sky and burning flag
Colors crash, collide in blood shot eyes

If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would
Let it go...

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go

And so fade away
To let it go
And so fade away
To let it go
And so to fade away

I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
Wide awake
I'm not sleeping