BATMAN

Batman is a renegade. He will drive the Batmobile through your house if he needs to, no problem, the Bat won’t stop until the Bat gets his man! Batman will front kick a perp off a roof top and destroy half of Gotham city to make sure justice is served. The renegade in Batman is cool. We need more renegades. 

Batman is also a maverick; people don’t know if they should love him or hate him, he lives a reclusive existence, shies away from the public eye. He’s not trying to be liked or understood, he’s being the Batman, the person he is and he doesn’t need to please you. 

He’s also a fighter. I think Batman actually likes hurting people. He has all the tools and kit but we still always see Batman giving people a stern left hook or chop to the neck even in the classic Batman stuff on TV years ago. You would know if Batman has slapped you round the face, he’s a fighter. 

Days 4-6 focus on discovering if you are a renegade, a maverick or a fighter, if you want to be and how to get there. 

The Renegades 

Rebels and sometimes outlaws

Intro 

The Top Ten - classic cars

If you can’t drive the Batmobile, these are the next best thing:

10. BMW M3 

09. VW Golf GTi (VR6)

08. Peugeot 205 GTi (1.9 litre) 

07. Renault 5 Turbo 

06. Renault Clio Williams 

05. Toyota Supra Turbo (Manual) 

04. Subaru WRX STI 

03. Vauxhall Lotus Carlton

02. Ford Escort RS Turbo 

01. Ford Escort Cosworth

All fairly recent, controversial?

The Renegades - what we’re talking about:

Do you play by the rules? If told to stand would you stand without question? Do you seek instructions and follow them or are you a renegade, looking at all times to find a different path? 

A renegade isn’t just a man who thinks little of laws, rules and structures, but he is a man who looks at them without finding his place within them; it’s a deeper longing, a deeper voice sets this compass, a question of 'what if?' 

A renegade of old was a deserter, running from his convictions, but that’s not my definition here at all. The renegade character I am thinking of just can’t play it nice – there’s a fire in his bones that makes him unsettled, uncomfortable with conformity and comfort. Is that you? Do you want it to be? 

There was a man like this once, loads of stories are told about him, true ones! In a culture and a time foreign to us now, he was consistently inconsistent, not because of his lack of conviction and planning, but by his choices, a true renegade spirit. 

This man, when confronted by the dirtiest, poorest and most rotten people in society, the ones who everyone else would turn from and reject, was drawn to them instead. He would eat with them, share his food, a meal and laugh together. He would put his arm around infested men who had arrived at the bottom of life’s heap. 

That’s where you would find this man, that’s what he was about. 

The renegade heart can be about a code, a code of honour, integrity and respect. What do you think about that? Are you a renegade? Do you want to be?

Action:

We are required to play by the rules in lots of ways in society. However, today ask yourself how you can develop a renegade heart. Instead of watching your normal TV programme can you use that time for something else, something that will make a difference? Can you write? Show support for someone who won’t expect it? 

Reflect on these words from Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”