I'm reading a book called "Jesus for President" by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. It deals with a lot of politics and has ideas and an approach that we don't often hear. I find myself so caught up in the book...it's full of so many of my heart's desires. It's also a very interesting book to read around election time. :) Here's a short excerpt that I found very convicting & interesting:
"Remember when ole John the Baptizer sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he was the one they were expecting and he didn't answer them with a simple yes? Jesus instead told them to go tell John what they saw him doing. He knew that John could read the trail of crumbs. John knew that when lepers were healed, the blind saw, the dead rose, and the good news was preached to the poor, the one they were awaiting was indeed here.
What does our trail of crumbs look like? If someone asks if we are Christ-followers, can we say, "Tell me what you see"? Is there enough evidence to prove that we are taking after the slaughtered Lamb? What if they ask the poor around us? What if they ask our enemies? Would they say that we love them? Christians haven't always looked like Jesus. Perhaps the greatest barrier to Christ has been Christians who pronounce Jesus so loudly with their lips and deny him so loudly with their lives."
While sometimes the ideas sound great in theory, at times I do question what they might look like in real life. However, as Christians, Jesus didn't promise us we'd blend in with the world and its ideas. On the contrary, he stated quite the opposite.
Luke 6:22 states, "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man." Not exactly what we hope for as Christians!
In John 15:18-19 Jesus makes it clear, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."
Let's face it...some of the things Jesus calls us to are absolutely foolish in the world's eyes...but we are not to base our lifestyles on the standards of the world. We are to be set apart...to be generous, selfless, forgiving, loving, and sacrificial. It's a great challenge that I contemplate and strive to fulfill every single day.
2 comments:
Hm, some major food for thought...
Welcome to the blogging world Dana! I'm glad that you're enjoying your job in Hong Kong - your students sound fabulous!
Sounds really interesting, D. I'd love to hear what kinds of "crumbs" Claiborne suggests we should be leaving...or what do you think? It is definitely an interesting thing to consider going into the presidential elections and with the economic crisis that is going on. Who are we taking care of first and foremost? Who or what would be our biggest priority if we were living the life Jesus wanted us to live? When I think about these questions it really makes me question the work of the present administration, even though for the most part they are Christians, and many other administrations in the past.
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