In my heart of hearts, in the deepest recesses of my being, hidden under dark oceans of responsible and socially normative behaviour, and mountains of conditioned politically correct ideologies, resides a crusty old punk with a mohawk and neck tattoos. Every year, as I adapt to more of the social expectations for a respectable man my age, I heap more ‘niceness’ (luxury and comfort) on him and pray to God that he wouldn’t suddenly rear his dirty liberty spikes while I’m adulting at my place of employ or running errands at the local super market. However, while year-on-year I slowly build a track record as a responsible, productive, even tempered and well-mannered adult, nothing seems to completely smother the embers of anarchy that squats under a bridge deep in my soul. There I’d be, trying to smooth over a misunderstanding with a fellow patron at the grocery store regarding queuing etiquette when all of a sudden, inside my skull, a pair of Doc Martens stomps my rational and polite mind to a pulp and up comes the clenched fist and a deviant sneer. Ninety-nine percent of the time I can put the brute back in the box, but sometimes I wonder whether he’s not there for a purpose greater than just burning the world to ashes in a fit of rage. What if this anti-social, anti-establishment, anti-authority — actually anti-everything — aspect of my personality actually serves a spiritual purpose. If this is part of me, the way God made me, is it not meant to be there, or is this the “sinful nature”, the “old ways” and “the ways of the flesh” the Bible asks us to lay down [See: Ephesians 4:22; Romans 6:6; and Romans: 8:5]? I’m not so sure.

My father, a pentecostal minister and dedicated Christ-follower, can get mad — like torrent-of-molten-lava-mad. But while this scared me as a kid seeing this type of anger and aggression coming from the pulpit during the Sunday service, I realise now that there is place for this type of ‘holy-fury’ — a controlled and justified expression of outrage when faced with spiritual conflict.

One of the most famous punks of all time, Johnny Rotten, entitled his autobiography Anger is an Energy and nothing could explain the punk-thing more perfectly. It is a powerful source of energy. The dilemma is that depending on who you’ve got behind the steering wheel of your life, that energy could propel you to spiritual freedom and the life of an assertive disciple of Christ, or it could drive you into a brick wall. The trick is to control the flow of energy, but realistically no man can do this by himself. You need to put the reigns of your life in the hands of God before you even attempt to let the punk loose.

In the Bible, I see this angry punk stomping around the temple when Jesus chased out the merchants [See: Matthew 21:12], I also hear him when Jesus challenged the authority of Caesar and King David in the presence of the religious leaders. The ultimate exhibition of punk-ness, however, was when Jesus rose from the dead! The ultimate deviance against the ultimate authority!

My little revelation for this week’s post? Get your relationship (communication and communion) with God right, and then let him channel this energy through you. The punk in all of us is both a powerful ally and adversary – make sure your punk is fighting for the right side!