So because I've finished reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution, Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change, and Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis, I've been pretty strongly challenged... I'm not sure what I'm doing is alright as a Christian anymore. Is it really what Jesus would have wanted that we just grow up, get a good education, get a great job, make enough money to live by and maybe enjoy ourselves now and then, leave excellent little children, and see our grandchildren before we die and are buried in a plot of land?
I don't think so, see... we only fit within the system prescribed for us by the world that raised and directs us. You can't fight the major, non-Christian world powers by doing exactly what they want every individual person to do. Remember that Jesus' and the early Christians' means of living God's message out and giving it to everyone resulted in the world crucifying them. The world that would very soon after declare itself totally Christian.
What's the problem?
Everyone has the message now. But it didn't do anything major to the world. Nobody's dying for it in North America. It has no power. We have to show them the message. (Obviously, this doesn't mean go and die. It means do things "on the side of the rebel, Jesus", which contrast and oppose much of our society's priorities. Doing them sometimes ends up in persecution and death.)
I can't just live a complacent, happy life anymore. I think. Comfort has become uncomfortable.
"Comfort has become uncomfortable."
ReplyDeleteSo true. I've definitely gone through that, and probably have slipped back into the whole "comfortable" phase. Good post.
I've read Velvet Elvis, and part of The Irresistible Revolution.
Anyways. Just thought I'd let you know that I agree.