Beyond radical

I had breakfast with a student of mine today.

I have had him for two classes, and I knew that he had a genuine heart for the Lord, but we've never really connected until today. He shared his story and I shared mine. As usual, I took too long sharing mine.

This student is committed to a local church and was really intrigued when I started telling him about the church I am part of. As I told him how we meet and why we meet, I could see his eyes brighten. Then, he asked a question I was not expecting:

Have you guys done anything radical?

No, I responded, somewhat apologetically. We haven't done anything really radical.

And then I talked about how my family has a keypad on our door and four families or so know the code, so we will sometimes be sitting at the dinner table and hear the beeping of the buttons and just know that someone is coming to visit us.

And then I talked about how there was one time when Amanda and I were struggling financially and our oven went out. I told him that the church bought us this incredible, stainless steel oven, and that we even got to pick it out!

And then I talked about how different families have struggled financially at different times, and the church has always been there to make sure others are taken care of.

And then I talked about how, when a couple was struggling with life and marriage, different families took in each of their three teenagers for a season or two.

And then I talked about how one of those three teenagers has basically been adopted by a family in our church. She has spent two years or more living with them in this loving environment, and how the church is paying for her to go to a Christian private high school that seemed to be the best place for her. She now graduates this month, and I just got done taking her senior portraits.

The student just stared at me.

That sounds pretty radical to me! He said.

Well, I guess it is.

But none of it felt radical, and maybe that's the best part. When you begin doing churchlife the way we do it, a lot of emotion is involved. It's dramatic. And you cannot help but, at least in part, think about how you are doing things "differently."

Yet there has to come a time when you stop trying to be different. There has to come a time when it's not about what you are NOT and is rather about what you ARE. There has to come a time when it comes to be about Jesus alone, and you let go of "this is the right way" or "this is the only way." 

There has to come a time when you get beyond radical.

Then, and maybe only then, can you see just how radical Jesus really is.

Comments

[amykate]

This made me cry, in a good way.

[jog]

catching up on your blog posts today -- that's a little deceitful, really -- it sounds like i'm a regular reader who lapsed, which i'm not (regular, that is). but got online tonight to see what you were up to on "living" and read a number of posts. thanks, rishi, for cataloging the kindness of the Lord among this little collection of the broken faithful in waco. ice cream block party, the cause of spiritual stupidity, beyond radical... sometimes it's easy to overlook that the Kingdom is breaking in; thanks for keeping an eye to it, and reminding us.