Wherever Hunter was, there were drugs, explosives and guns. He wasn't what one would call a "tame" man. Quite frankly, if I'd met Hunter, I probably wouldn't have liked him much; but there is a quality about the way he lived that I hunger for.
It’s the quality that makes me think that Christianity would look quite different if Christians lived a little more like Hunter than the way we live now: looking for and living a "safe" life.
And why not? We serve a God who is the Almighty Other: Almighty and Unpredictable. If we were to grasp that, I mean truly grasp that, we - as His followers - would become as unpredictable as He is.
Jesus told us to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect. If ever there was a person who lived a perfect human life it was Jesus. His life, while on this earth, was completely unpredictable; so much so that His words were often explosive.
Have you read the Gospels lately? Have you really paid attention to what He said, did, and how He acted?
He loved the unlovable, he ate with the ragged and the outcast. He went to parties. He touched lepers, he said things the crowds could not understand, and as a result, many of them left Him.
John 6:25–71 gives an account of His teaching the people things they could not comprehend. Finally at verse 66 the Bible says, "From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him."
He also castigated the religious leaders. It seems – as we read - that the religious leaders might be the one group of people He should have wanted to win the most favor from, but no; and when it came time for Him to defend Himself, He answered none of their accusations.
Jesus was not a "tame" man.
Perhaps we, as Jesus' followers should not be tame either.
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a ride!'" ― Hunter S. Thompson