Reading Shane Clairborne's book Irresistible Revolution reminds me that we are called to live radical lives for Jesus. The question, for me, has always been: What does a radical life look like in my world. Now, I don't mean my world in the sense of the world I make, simply in the sense of the world I currently inhabit. What does it mean to be a radical follower of Jesus Christ in 21st century rural England?
In the end it might mean pretty much the same as it does in metropolitan London, or suburban Wimbledon (I've experienced both). Perhaps we look for radical in the wrong place. Perhaps, for some at least, radical means rethinking one's perspective on the job and career you choose. For some a change is in order, for others the job remains but the ethos changes.
Perhaps the most radical thing we can do is to love each other, and to keep on loving each other despite our best efforts to be unlovely. When I seen pain and heartache in the church, I remind myself that Jesus said that our love for one another would be a symbol of our having been with him, of being his followers.
Perhaps today is your day for doing something radical and loving the person who has hurt you most deeply. It won't be easy, but I guess radical never is.
2 comments:
Perhaps the most radical thing we can do is to love each other, and to keep on loving each other despite our best efforts to be unlovely.
Agreed! At Ordinary Attempts we are trying to help people find ways to show people the love of God, one person at a time.
Yeah, it really is a great book for making you ask those sorts of questions.
I think loving the unlovely and those who've hurt you the most is indeed one of the most radical things we can do today, especially within the Christian church with all it's many offshoots and different segments. Diversity is great, God created us as unique human beings al with individual character, creativity, passions etc etc, why is it then that we only seem to love those who mirror back who we are or see ourselves as being or want to become, it's always harder to love those who we would class as the unlovely or not worth loving...no it's not easy but I think in seeking to do so it is truly radical.
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