Yesterday we had the Braun’s and Jerry Newton over for hamburgers and the Pioneer Woman’s peanut butter chocolate pie (yum). Jerry works at Lifeway Christian store here in Lubbock and he was telling me about a book called RADICAL by David Platt (my mom and sister’s new favorite pastor) and he said how good of a book it was. It sounded like something I should read, and remember devout blogstalkers, I was on a reading kick a few months ago and only made it past 2 books before I was out of that phase. I thought that I needed to just read it all in a day and get it over with instead of starting it and never finishing it, and so I went to Daybreak with some friends to chat it up and ended up having 3 shots of espresso in my drink to help me stay up and read it all.
I am a lightweight when it comes to caffeine. I hardly ever have any, and when I would even half a half decaf at Starbucks my eyes would burn and my heart would race within 10 minutes of drinking it. It is sad and quite funny, so I knew that the 3 shots would do the job and maybe a little extra. Josh warned me not to do it, he said that last time I tried this I was up til 4 AM and was grumpy the next day, but I did it anyway. Caffeine really is a miracle. I couldn’t believe that my mind was so focused even after staying up all night and having such a really long month! My eyes stayed open and the entire book was incredible.
This book brings to light the contrast of the “American Dream” type churches with their million dollar buildings and soft cooshy chairs with the light show during worship and the churches in Asia and Africa where thousands of people come from villages risking their lives to sit all day in the hot sun to learn about the Word of God. It talks about how most of us think we aren’t “called” to go and make disciples of ALL nations, even though this is what Christ commanded everyone to do, and how we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new playgrounds and church event centers and don’t even give anything to missions or the local poor and needy.
I don’t want to be this way. I want to be less materialistic, less greedy, be fearless in my faith (the biggest struggle I have), travel to foreign and domestic lands to help the needy and share the love of Christ with them and not be consumed by all that does not matter, and tell me friends, does anything else really matter when compared to eternity? How can I get so caught up in wanting a chair that costs $500 when that same $500 could feed and give water to so many children and families in need? How can I want a huge, modern house that will cost a fortune when there are so many people locally who NEED to be cared for? I want to be a foster mom and accept all who need help. I don’t want my life to pass by and look back and see selfishness and self-absorbed memories and possessions.
I want to live my life for Christ and not for myself.
I want to be radical.
My heart has a longing that I’ve never felt before and I think it’s because Christ’s return is soon and he is quickening the hearts of his people. Is anyone else out there feeling this?
