Another Way of Doing Life

Chapter 5 of Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution. Man, this was a looong chapter, and oh so good. I can't possibly put everything worthwhile in this post - so, if I haven't said it already, you need to read this book. But be warned, it will mess you up!

(p. 117) The very first paragraph: "If you ask most people what Christians believe, they can tell you, 'Christians believe that Jesus is God's Son and that Jesus rose from the dead.' But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way."

(p.119) "We knew that the world cannot afford the American dream and that the good news is that there is another dream." ('The world cannot afford the American dream' - that is good. Is that why debt is so high?).

(p.123) "Sometimes we speak to change the world; other times we speak to keep the world from changing us."

(p.127) "Many spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise. It can be hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom."

(p.129) The words of late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara: "When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist."

(p.132) "...today people crave the spectacular. People are drawn to lights and celebrities, to arenas and megachurches. In the desert, Jesus was tempted by the spectacular - to throw himself from the temple so that people might believe - to shock and awe people, if you will. Today the church is tempted by the spectacular, to do big, miraculous things so people might believe, but Jesus has called us to littleness and compares our revolution to the little mustard seed, to yeast making its way through dough, slowly infecting this dark world with love." (This was maybe the best quote/point of the chapter. Maybe - there are many).

(p.138) "There are plenty of people who are miserable in their jobs, for they have not listened to God's call." (He does a good job pointing out that not everyone who meets Jesus will sell everything they have, quit their job, and be poor. Some will be transformed in such a way that they keep their vocation, but change how they do it, or what they do with their resources.)

(p.145) Maybe this is the best quote so far: "I'm not sure we need more churches. What we really need is A CHURCH." He follows this by quoting an unnamed preacher who said, "We've got to unite ourselves as one body. Because Jesus is coming back, and he's coming back for a bride, not a harem."

(p.149) "We need converts in the best sense of the word, people who are marked by the renewing of their minds and imaginations, who no longer conform to the pattern that is destroying our world. Otherwise, we have only believers, and believers are a dime-a-dozen nowadays. What the world needs is people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting it now." (Actually, maybe THIS is the best quote so far).

(p.150) "We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes new life into them."

(p.153) "When we are trying to teach kids not to hit each other and they see a government use violence to bring about change, we start to consider what it means to give witness to a peace that is not like the world gives (John 14:27)."

All I can say is... convicting. So convicting. I am nothing.

Peace, friends. There is a revolution.