24
Liberal Daughter vs. Conservative Father
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth. She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school. Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Audrey doing?”
She replied, “Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.”
Her wise father asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.”
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, “That’s a crazy idea, and how would that be fair! I’ve worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail
off!”
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, “Welcome to the Republican party.”
[Source: Email Forward]
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.
