You say you want a revolution?

Everyone who reads the Irresistible Revolution tells me it changed their life. After a while I got tired of hearing that response. I mean I'm glad it apparently changed their life, but it's kind of like when people come back from a trip out of the country or a missions trip and you as them how it was and all you get back is "it was amazing" or "it was life-changing". I have no doubt that they fully believe that this book has changed their life, but why this book and why not the many chapters of the Bible that I know they also are reading simultaneously. So I just started asking the dreaded question no one wants to answer. "Why?" Why has this seemingly simple book about some guy in Philadelphia changed so many people's lives and the next question is always "How?". About half the time the people stare blankly back at me, not having expected to have to explain why this book had such an impact on them. It gets them thinking though, almost all of them have come back later and said, "so when you asked me "Why and how?" the other day I was shocked, but now that I have thought about it here is how." I have loved the responses I have gotten back. They range anywhere from a simple change of financial responsibility to people like Eddie and Emilie deciding to up and move down here to God's Resort with us. I have decided that the reason this book has had such an impact on our group is found in 2 reasons:

1. It is the life story of one Christian guy selling out to Jesus instead of the world and actually living radically in our world. There are not a lot of wholesome people out there who when being radical are safe to follow, but this guy is one example of how you really can living radically different from the world in a way that shuns everything that Jesus would hate, but embraces all of his teachings as well.

2. It gives us the excuse to do it. Most of us are at a point in life where the world is calling and we have the choice to start down an upward mobility path or a downward mobility path and this guy gives us the excuse to go a way radically different from the world that most of us were just waiting to find an excuse for. It's hard to be just starting out with little financial stability or clout in the world and say "I am going to reject the norm and go for something that may leave me with no money and no worldly success because it really is where I want to be more than anywhere else.”

I am so excited to keep talking to people about this book, merely because it has caused so many people to think about what it means to follow Jesus in a world so drastically different then that of the disciples in Acts.

On a different note, I just finished reading the book Kingdom Works by Bart Campolo. It is basically a collection of thirty stories from Mission Year, the program I am applying to for next year. I had a lot of fun reading it because honestly a lot of the stories about teams in the field sound like the stories Megan and I tell in this blog. It is always comforting for us to read similar accounts and know we at least are experiencing the same setbacks and challenges, and every once in a while successes, as other inner city neighbors. I love Bart Campolo’s outlook on Christianity and his passion for telling it like it is. It sometimes makes people uncomfortable, but hey so did Jesus.