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Scandalous Life

The only life worth living is a scandalous one: scandalous love, offensive mercy, foolish faith. Let joy live loud in your soul. Ann Voskamp

I love this quote.  I love it for the use of the word scandalous.  What a cool word.  Now if you look it up in the dictionary and see its meaning you might think I have gone off the deep end for saying it's a cool word.  But stick with me.  One of its definitions is this: offensive to propriety or morality.  That's where things get cool when you combine faith and scandal. Jesus caused a lot of scandal in his day as he walked from town to town and offended the ideas, practices, and relationships that had been set up.  He offended a bunch of people with his lavish love, his unending mercy, and his talk of how to live in faith.  He was scandalous in all the best ways possible.  And here's the cool thing.  He calls me to do it to...and you!  And he gave us examples and equipped us.  SO COOL.   
The second part of Voskamp's quote is a by-product of living the scandalous life.  Joy.  A joy you never thought existed.  Why joy?  Because when we live as we were created to then joy is a natural manifestation.  It can't be stopped, it will well up in your soul and cause you to live out loud which usually helps when living a scandalous life.  I've never known a scandal to be quiet.  
So live a scandalous life, you only have one life with which to go all out. Be scandalous in all the best ways possible.  

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