Irresistable Revolution

I finally finished Shane Claiborne's "The Irresistable Revolution: living as an ordinary radical." Walt wants me to write some thoughts about it, but I am not sure my thoughts are totally collected. I may ramble some. Condensing the book into a nice little synopsis is almost impossible, but here are some of the things I got out of it.

Social Justice: as Christ followers we should hate poverty, oppression, killing, and injustice in general. We should work to eradicate the social injustices of our times. God does not want us to be indifferent to human suffering. Instead, we need to meet the needs of our community and our world. As Mother Teresa says, "In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises." How can we let our "neighbor" go hungry when our plates are overflowing? How can we let children in our community live on the streets when we have empty bedrooms and money to spare? When we do for the least of these, we do for Christ himself.

Isolation: I wrote in an earlier blog that I live an insulated and somewhat isolated life from the raging chaos outside my windows. I am safe, clean, and well fed. My brothers and sisters live in chaos that I am quite oblivious to. Sure, I know that it exists, but I don't experience it. My comfort level is much too great.

Why?: An old comic strip had 2 guys talking to each other. One asked why God allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. And his friend says, "well, why don't you ask God?" The fellow shakes his head and says he is scared. When his friend asks why, he mutters, "I'm scared God will ask me the same question." When we ask God why he allows the injustices to exist in our world, he likely would answer: "You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet." (This comes from pages 64 and 65 in the book).

War: This is a hard topic that I am still struggling with. Maybe I will write about it later.

Creation: God has allowed us to enjoy his creation, but he has only given us one shot at it. His creation is his, not ours. We are here to enjoy, not to exploit. We need to be environmentally friendly to preserve this precious gift. This means recycling, reducing our dependence on oil, using flourescent bulbs,and much much more. As Rob Bell has recently preached on: "God is green."

Love: Everything written above must be driven by LOVE. Most importantly, love for God. Then, love for our neighbor, love for justice, love for righteousness, and love for creation. When we love we will be driven to bring justice and equality.

There is so so much more to this book and I wish that everyone would read it. As I process more, I will write more. I want to be held accountable for the knowledge God has given me.