Mar
23

Do I Even “Want” to be an Ordinary Radical?

By baldbrian // Faith, Introspection, Wisdom // No Comments

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.