Philippians 3:8 “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”
Let me be honest with you: I think my biggest struggle is bridging the inconsistencies in my life between believing in a revolutionary message and seeking to behave in a respectable manner. The apostle Paul wrote the above verses from prison, having gone from total societal respectability to disapprobation. He was a revolutionary. During the Pope’s visit to Cuba in 1998, someone daubed this graffiti on a public wall: ‘To be a Christian without being a revolutionary is a mortal sin.’ I don’t quite agree, but I echo the heartbeat. Similarly my heart leaps at what Robert Capon describes:
“What happened to the category-smashing, life-threatening, anti-institutional gospel that spread through the first century like wildfire and was considered (by those in power) dangerous? What happened to the kind of Christians whose hearts were on fire, who had no fear, who spoke the truth no matter what the consequence, who made the world uncomfortable, who were willing to follow Jesus wherever he went? I want to be ‘dangerous’ to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered ‘dangerous’ by our predictable and monotonous culture.”
Every decision we face in our respectable culture is sucking us into a mold of conformity and fitting in. I hate it. It’s suffocating, it’s domesticating, it’s neutralizing. I see so little hope of breaking the mold of mediocrity, of liberating ourselves from the shackles of convention, apart from finding others who similarly ache for authenticity.
Do you echo the above? Or have you been taken out completely? Sometimes it’s safer to settle for lower expectations and a smaller God, but no, for Christ’s sake, we must not!
Those Christians still exist. God is calling you to be one of them. You can’t do it alone. Seek them out. Get your hands dirty and do life together. Join the revolution!
Lord God Almighty, I ache for authenticity today. Enough with being respectable, help me join the revolution. Amen!
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