The other day, I blogged about a brave young man who got in trouble for mentioning Jesus in his graduation speech. Now, I\u2019m pretty sure Jesus was up there clapping for him. Why? Because Jesus was the ultimate rule breaker. Not the \u201cThou shalt nots,\u201d but the rules made by the hypocrites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember being 15 when my dad died just before Christmas. I told a friend, \u201cYou\u2019re so lucky. You still have your dad.\u201d I broke the rule of \u201cgrin and bear it,\u201d but can you blame me? I\u2019d lost my dad. Then, a friend who understood my pain hugged me and said, \u201cTime helps. It doesn\u2019t heal, but it helps.\u201d She broke the rule of \u201clet her figure it out herself.\u201d Her compassion taught me to be there for others facing loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus\u2019 followers are described as \u201cthe body of Christ\u201d (1 Corinthians 12:27). We\u2019re His hands and feet on earth. We break the rule of \u201ckeep to yourself\u201d by sharing with those in need. When we help others, we\u2019re serving Jesus. His promise is clear: \u201cAs you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me\u201d (Matthew 25:40).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus wasn\u2019t about following the crowd. He broke the rules to show love and compassion. He healed on the Sabbath, visited a tax collector\u2019s home, forgave a woman caught in adultery, and allowed another woman to wash His feet with her tears and hair. He even turned water into wine and raised the dead. Jesus didn\u2019t stay dead either, breaking the biggest rule of all. He integrated into the lives of those who were hurting. That\u2019s our call too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our world is full of divisions. Haters gonna hate, lovers gonna love. Jesus broke the rules of segregation with His love. Our spirituality isn\u2019t measured by what we do on Sunday but by what we do every day of the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look at Mother Teresa. She broke plenty of rules to bring light to her world. She saw Jesus in every person she served. She said, \u201cI see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, \u2018This is hungry Jesus, I must feed Him. This is sick Jesus. I must wash Him and tend to Him. I serve because I love Jesus.\u2019\u201d Her legacy lives on, with her order, the Missionaries of Charity, serving in 120 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Jesus is God-with-us and the best example of how we should live, then maybe, just maybe, we\u2019re all called to break a few rules. In doing so, we might just break the chains that have held us back for too long. Amen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The other day, I blogged about a brave young man who got in trouble for mentioning Jesus in his graduation speech. Now, I\u2019m pretty sure Jesus was up there clapping for him. Why? Because Jesus was the ultimate rule breaker. Not the \u201cThou shalt nots,\u201d but the rules made by the hypocrites. I remember being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18828,1210,3833,20566,29875,1769,2212,1392,29880,5914,29882,29878,29345,40,29883,2049,29877,29879,29876,29881],"class_list":["post-20182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1-corinthians-1227","tag-blog","tag-body-of-christ","tag-break-the-chains","tag-breaking-rules","tag-christian","tag-compassion","tag-facebook","tag-forgave","tag-hands-and-feet-of-jesus","tag-haters-gonna-hate","tag-healed-on-the-sabbath","tag-hypocrites","tag-inspiration","tag-lovers-gonna-love","tag-mother-teresa","tag-serving-jesus","tag-tax-collectors-home","tag-thou-shalt-not","tag-washed-his-feet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20195,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20182\/revisions\/20195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}