23
Do I Even “Want” to be an Ordinary Radical?
I just finished reading the book The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne, and I must say that it has been very challenging to me. I’m actually reading it again right now just to try to absorb some more good stuff. Since I’m still a little blown away (and big time convicted) this first post will simply contain a handful of choice quotes. I’m hoping to get a few friends together to discuss this stuff further as I’m still in the process of developing some new convictions – I think.
- I am alone, surrounded by unbelieving activists and inactive believers
- Dualism has infected the church. People separate the spiritual from the political and social
- We live in a consumer culture with stuff gathering dust on our shelves
- Most things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived
- For me it became hard to read the Bible and just walk away as if I had just watched a nice movie – Jesus never seemed to do anything normal
- As I read Scriptures about how the last would be first, I began to wonder why I was trying so hard to be first
- I recall joking with a friend that if someone had a heart attack on Sunday morning the paramedic would have to take the pulse of everyone in the congregation in order to find the dead person
- We can’t begin to understand the poor until we understand what poverty is like
- We’ve insulated ourselves from miracles, we no longer live with such reckless faith that we need them
- Take care of people because we could be entertaining angels and not know it
- I saw a street kid get twenty bucks panhandling outside a store and then immediately run inside to share it with all his friends
- I found that I was just as likely to meet God in the sewers of the ghetto as in the halls of academia
- I learned more about God from the tears of homeless mothers than any systematic theology ever taught me
- How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and yet ignore one on Monday
- Church resurrected
- We decided to stop complaining about the church we saw and start becoming the church we dreamed of
- We were not interested in Christianity that offered these families only mansions and streets of gold in Heaven when all they needed was a bed for their kids now – when many Christians had an extra one
- I knew that we were not going to win the masses to Christianity until we began to live it
- What if Jesus really meant the stuff he said?
- He read the gospel and it messed everything up
- We are called not to be successful but to be faithful
- We can do no great things, just small things with great love, it’s not how much you do but how much love you put into doing it
- I’m not that interested in what I’m going to do, I’m more interested in what I’m becoming
And I think that last line describes where I am right now. What am I becoming? I sure want to become more caring and aware of the needs of those who are less fortunate than I. And I hope to figure out how to desire more for faithfulness than success. I want to be influenced more and more by the gospel.
13
Growing Your Faith in 20 Minutes per Day
Well, I’ve decided that I’m going to write a book. The title of it will be “Growing Your Faith in 20 Minutes per Day.” Now, before I actually write it I’ll have to figure out how to grow my faith in just 20 minutes per day first. I’m feeling a tad frustrated right now actually. Here’s my standard daily schedule:
6:00 AM – Alarm clock goes off – get up and press snooze.
6:10 AM – Alarm clock goes off – get up and turn clock off and check to make sure Blackberry alarm is on.
6:30 AM – Blackberry alarm goes off. I lay in bed thinking about how if I were to get up right now I would have time to take a shower and stop to get breakfast on the way to work.
6:45 AM – Still laying in bed – even if I take a really fast shower I’ll be late to work if I stop to get breakfast.
6:50 AM – Jump out of bed and get in the shower.
7:05 AM – Just finished my shower (and shaving my head), it’s time to brush my teeth.
7:10 AM – Start getting dressed for work – I have 10 minutes if I want to get to work on time (no breakfast today).
7:20 AM – Head to the car.
7:25 AM – Hit the road. Where did that 5 minutes just go???
7:55 AM – Almost to work, do I grab a biscuit from Hardees and show up a few minutes late or just go straight to work?
8:00 AM – Stop at Hardees.
8:10 AM – Arrive at work.
~~~Fast Forward~~~
5:30 PM – Start winding down my day to leave by 6:00 PM.
7:00 PM – Leave work. How did I end up there an extra hour???
7:45 PM – Get home – head to my bedroom change out of my work clothes.
8:00 PM – Still half-dressed in my work clothes, I sit at my computer to check my email and wind-down from the day.
9:00 PM – Have I been on the computer for an hour? Ugh!
9:15 PM – Eat dinner.
9:45 PM – Boil some water and drink a cup of Natural Calm.
10:00 PM – Start working on my web sites.
12:00 AM – I’m still working on my sites when I realize that even if I lay down right now and fall asleep fast I’m going to get less than 6 hours of sleep and will be miserable the next day at work.
12:30 AM – Lay down to go to sleep; I just lay there thinking about how I didn’t get a chance to exercise, read my Bible, call a friend, and so on. Pray that I will wake up feeling as if I had gotten a full 8 hours of sleep.
1:00 AM – Fall asleep.
Ok, so when do I spend time with the Lord? Don’t get me wrong, I pray almost non-stop throughout the day – “pray without ceasing” – but when do I have time to study the Scripture, read interesting articles and books to gain knowledge and wisdom, or simply put some intense thought into God, and Jesus, and my beliefs, and how I’m growing, and what I can learn, and where I’m heading in life, and… I think you get the picture. So, if any of you have it figured out, you know, growing your faith in 20 minutes per day, please hit me up!
