There are three impacts St. Francis has had upon me.
First, his love of creation. I love how St. Francis experienced brotherhood and sisterhood with the wolf, the birds, the wind, rain, sun and moon.
Second, Francis was the one who put the spiritual disciplines of poverty and simplicity on my Protestant radar screen. Since being exposed to St. Francis and Henry David Thoreau's Walden I've tried to live a simpler life.
Lastly and most importantly, St. Francis is the one who taught me to take the gospels seriously, especially the Sermon on the Mount.
As a Protestant I'd always put my focus on Jesus as the substitutionary sacrifice that atoned for my sins. Before St. Francis, I'd never seriously considered Jesus as a model to imitate. And what haunts me to this day about the witness of St. Francis is how fearlessly he obeyed the teachings, commands, and example of Jesus. A lot of progressives don't like flat, literal readings of the Bible. But Francis read the gospels literally, even recklessly. Me? I like to hedge my bets with Jesus. Consequently, St. Francis has been a good companion on my journey, a goad always challenging me to take Jesus more seriously, wooing me deeper into the reckless, foolishness of the cross.
