“But you speak of him as if he were a friend,” said Gimli. “I thought Fangorn was dangerous.”
”Dangerous!” cried Gandalf. “And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord. And Aragorn is dangerous, and Legolas is dangerous. You are beset with dangers, Gimli son of Gloin; for you are dangerous yourself, in your own fashion.””
Dangerous? That’s about the last thing most of us feel these days.
Incompetent would be closer to the truth.
Superfluous, even.
Vitally necessary to the successful completion of…well...nothing, really.
Who me? dangerous? To whom? Myself, maybe. My friends and family, probably. My church and my ministry, heaven forbid. All the people I am supposed to be bold enough and strong enough and dangerous enough to protect…and the ones that will be hurt the worst through my failure.
And what of the Enemy? What sort of danger do I pose to Satan and his Kingdom? Do the agents of Evil shudder when I am mentioned in their Councils of War?
...Or is that laughter I hear rising from the Abyss?
If the Accuser was passing out nicknames, would "Dangerous One" enter his wildest imagination? Or would "Toothless Pussycat" be more to the point? Or worse still, might he go with "Laughingstock", "Court-Jester", or even "Village Idiot"?
Yeah, I'll bet a healthy percentage of you reading this right now feel about as 'dangerous' as rabid chipmunk.
Now lets be clear about something: much of what is True about our position in Christ simply, across the board, IS True, whether we feel like it is True or not. For instance: We are Loved. Very few people have a solid grip on this fact, and we are all at some different stage of learning to believe it completely and allowing it to recreate our core selves. The love of God truly is one of those Great Things that can be taught in an instant and yet somehow remain the study of a lifetime. In our more transparent moments we would not show the slightest condescention to a man or woman twenty years into their Christian journey who confessed to an imperfect trust or understanding of God's love. It's simply too big, too incredible, too wonderful. Mostly we just don't get it. We either fall into one fallacy of thinking that God's love is not a very big deal, or else we move to the other extreme of fearing that it is far too good to possibly be true.
But no matter how we feel about God's love, the bedrock fact of it doesn't change. It's there. It's true. And there are a great many other parts of our faith that work the same way: what is True in these instances is not contingent on what we are feeling, or even, for that matter, how we are living.
But this isn't the whole story. Not everything works that way. It's no good having some sincere, dear-hearted Christian remind you that "Satan shudders" at the very mention of your name because you have the power of Christ within you.
There is a world of difference between potential and actuality.
Make no mistake: You could be Dangerous. Powerful. Heroic. A Force to be reckoned with. A formidable foe and an immediate threat to the Kingdom of Darkness. You were intended for such a role. You have access to all the help you will need to live that sort of life.
Yes, it's available. But it's also conditional. You can't sit on the sofa every night watching Seinfeld re-runs, growing sleek and lazy, and yet make some sort of claim to being a dangerous and skilled weapon in the hands of the Lord of Hosts.
Dangerous is good, by the way.
Did you know that you had permission to be dangerous?
You do.
Did you also know that the rather rag-tag collection of believers that you are wandering with through this journey we call Life are dangerous as well, in their own fashion? Or could be, if someone woke them up to who they have been called to become? Did you know that you were meant to live and laugh and work and battle in the company of a small fellowship of dangerous warriors - strong, bold men or women who will call you out when you start to lose your "edge", embolden you when you lack the courage to stand, sing your praises when you experience victory, stand back-to-back with you when the battle intensifies and all hope seems lost, wrestle with principalities and powers for your joy, your heart, and your soul as if it was their own, lay down their very life for you?
If you thought that walking in such a brave company was your birthright in Christ, and if you thought that sooner or later you were going to need someone to play all of these roles described above in the story of your life that lies ahead...would you be content with what you currently have?
You want to feel more dangerous?
Be like Gimli and walk in dangerous company.
Can't find dangerous company?
Then be like Gandalf and kindle a fire in hearts that have grown cold. Call others out. Give them permission to be dangerous. Let them know that that's how you see them. Allow them to begin to dare to believe it could be true.
Find it, or make it. But don't settle for anything less.
“You are only as strong as the man on your right.”