There is something cool about being a rebel right? You are subverting the norm. You are standing apart from everyone else and forging your own way. You can’t be told what to do or say or who you are. You are your own person! You know who you are and you know what you’re doing. Well, maybe you don’t KNOW all these things. But you are definitely not like everyone else so you certainly will not be doing what everyone else does.
Do you understand that following Christ is rebellious? And not necessarily in the way that religion of all kinds are shunned today and calling yourself a Christian opens you up to ridicule. That was the case even in the time of Christ and His apostles. No, following God in this way sets you apart from the world already. You are living a life that differs from the norm, following a path that is unconventional. In a world where faith has been replaced with the idolatry of man, of consumerism and capitalism, of money, you are the odd one out.
Perhaps it is the fact that we do this together with the body of Christ that leads us to feel the need to rebel against the divine, to harden our hearts with disobedience, sin, insubordination, and defiance and in so doing forge our own path of destruction. You are already taking part in a bold rebellion. You are standing in a world that holds people and things in high regard and extolling your values of the divine. You are speaking about eternity in a room where people believe that life ends when we close our eyes for the final time. You are living the spiritual in places where it is deemed superstition. There is no where else to go. There is nothing else to prove. You are already where you need to be.
Individual rebellion is often seen as attention seeking behaviour, attributed to young adults trying to break the mold their parents have made for them in an attempt to become their own person – unique and individual. But much like the prodigal son the outcome is that we all return home, hat in hand, seeking forgiveness and hoping to be welcomed back.