Sometimes I contemplate how dangerous I am. Yes, I know that’s an embarrassing thing to think about. It’s increasingly more humiliating to admit, but for the sake of reaching a point in the near future, I’m putting it out there anyways.

This line of thinking is instigated by a variety of things. Sometimes I see an attractive young man looking at me from across a room and I instantly feel dangerous; I feel dangerous enfolded in my powerful femininity. Other times I see how a small act changes someone’s day. Looking the Target employee in the eye and treating my Panera cashier as a person of value— those small acts of kindness are powerful… dangerous in a world the enemy is trying to claim for himself. The final common source of my pensive-danger moments is reading anything that makes me engage in the world again. Marianne Williamson’s quote is a prime example:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I think about being dangerous because I am dangerous. I had a power etched into the depth of me the moment I chose to belong to Christ. It’s the same wild power that embodies the heart and way of Abba. C.S. Lewis explains the danger of God simply enough, “He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion." (Chronicles of Narnia).

Okay, so there you have it. God is dangerous, and because I am His… I too am dangerous. Very dangerous.

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The world, too, is dangerous. It is a very dangerous place for billions of people:
· “Unicef estimates that 1.2 MILLION people are trafficked [for sexual purposes] every year throughout the world” (Barna Institute).
· “The death tolls from the December 26 [2005] tsunami killed tens of thousands of people in more than 11 countries [somewhere between 169,752 -297,046]. (CNN.com)
· Over 126 million children work in the worst forms of child labor; that means one in every 12 of the world's 5-17 years olds work in such conditions (antislavery.org).
· “Africa has [over] 11.6 million AIDS orphans” (avert.org).
· In 1994, in Rwanda alone, “over the course of only 100 days, a stupefying 1,000,000 people were slaughtered” (survivors-fund.org.uk)
· “The average age of entry into prostitution is age 13” (Polaris Project).
· Just one consequence of Burma’s over 60-year civil war, reports claim that war has decimated the health of the Burmese people; standard health indicators rank this area amongst the worst in the world (clearpathinternational.org).
· Over 33 million people are living with AIDS throughout the world (avert.org)
· “Colombia [alone] supplies roughly 800 tons of cocaine to world markets every year-more than 80 percent of the global supply — and a rising share of the world’s heroin” (pbs.org).
· In 2006 the International Labour Organization estimates there to be at least 218 million working children aged between five and 17 (antislavery.org).

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God is dangerous > I am dangerous ≥ The world (and enemy) is dangerous

The unkind thing about this equation is… I am not made to be equal to this fallen world, ever. I am created in the likeness of the Creator and Ruler of all. I bear the very image of God… however, I do very little to counter the evil in this world. I rarely live or act as “more than a conqueror through Him” (Rom 8:37).

This is the ugly side of danger.

I feel a burden slumbering in the deep places of my soul. I am made to be a voice for the ridiculed, abused, ignored, and helpless. Justice, like danger, is in the very DNA of Abba Father. It is, therefore, lingering somewhere in my self-centered heart.

Arise dangerous one! Care for the assaulted and passed over. Bond yourself to the Source. Go and live dangerously in the arenas that matter most!