Reckless Abandon

What comes to your mind when I say the phrase reckless abandon? A car crash being left by the one who caused the problem? A child being left carelessly on the side of the road? I am just about certain that you aren't going to get a picture of what I am going to describe to you in just a few minutes.

Consider the following definitions:
Reckless:
without thought of danger
utterly unconcerned about the consequences of some action

Abandon:
exuberantly excited
Perhaps you thought of the same meanings when I first mentioned the words, but even I was surprised at the definition for abandon. Exuberantly excited... That's pretty excited. I am picturing a child on Christmas morning, a girl getting engaged... lots of moments that would potentially lead a person to being exuberantly excited. 

Now try to get in your mind's eye a picture of a person who could be described as one of reckless abandon. A girl is getting on a airplane with three suitcases of clothes, supplies, and other things she might need, a backpack and a large bag with other essential items. She leaves behind some family members, tons of friends, and a church family that means the world to her. At the end of her journey waits a man that less than a year ago was little more than a stranger to her and now he means the world to her. She quit a good paying job, sold her car and few possessions, and is now headed 9,000 miles away from home to live out the calling that God has on her life. What do you think? Is she crazy/ Has she lost her mind? Honestly what do you think about her choices? Going to live in a third world country relying on the kindness of people she barely knows to take care of her. I guess to some it must sound a bit extreme and radical even, and to others, nothing more than the normal expected behavior. Did she become a person of reckless abandon? I think so. 

The girl had a choice to make. She could stay at home working in her comfortable job doing what she liked to do, or she could take a step of faith and follow what God is asking of her. She chose to make that step of faith and in the process is finding more and more blessings are coming her way. Going and serving the Lord doesn't require such extreme things of everyone. Some people aren't being called to the farthest reaches of the globe, they are being called to serve right in their own backyards. You don't have to go all around the world to serve the Lord with reckless abandon. You can be exuberantly excited in the work He has for you right at home. 
Consider two stories from scripture. The first is found in Mark 14. It is the story of the lady with the alabaster jar. It was filled with expensive oil that could have been sold and provided for her family for a long time. She didn't consider the consequences. She only wanted to give her best to the Lord and she broke the jar and anointed him that oil. She didn't do it for the glory of being seen doing it. She did it because it was the best should could do for Him.  She was most certainly a woman of reckless abandon. The second story I want you to consider is that of Ruth and Naomi found in Ruth 1. Naomi and her two daughters-in-law were recent widows. Naomi told the women to go back to their people. The first daughter-in-law did just that. Ruth however says this "Wherever you go I will go, wherever you stay I will stay, your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God. Where you die I shall die..." I don't know that I would have been willing to have said these things in this situation. Ruth was another woman of reckless abandon. Not thinking about the consequences of going to a foreign land, she quickly agreed to stay with her mother-in-law, and in the end was blessed abundantly for her choices. 

For those of you that know me best, you will see the similarity in this story and the one of my own that is currently being written during my time here in Kenya. While some of it has yet to come true other parts of the story are all too familiar. The things that I know right now are that Kenya is becoming more and more like home every day and I am growing closer day by day with the children and with that special missionary I have been blessed to call my boyfriend for the last (almost) two months. I want to be this woman of reckless abandon. I want to be so exuberantly excited about the path that God is walking me down that I don't stop to consider the consequences of my actions. I want to be so wholly wrapped up in Him that the consequences aren't a part of my thoughts because of my desire to be obedient. 

Today, I challenge you to find ways to be a person of reckless abandon in the places where you are.

Until next time.
Melody