Irresistible Revolution...

Thursday night myself, Johanna, and a few friends went to hear Shane Claiborne speak at Texas State at the Price Lectures. I was really excited to hear what Shane would say because I have heard a lot about him in ministry and missions circles. He lives in a faith community that has done amazing things in Philly. He also spoke at the National Youth Workers Convention in Anaheim last year and cashed his entire honorarium for the event into one dollar bills and then gave them away to all the youth ministers at the convention to go and use to make a difference in someone's life...Needless to say, this guy is the real deal. He has studied theology and sociology and Eastern where Tony Campolo teaches. He knows his stuff, but is so humble and real. He talked about how so many times we as Christians live like we really don't believe that Jesus meant what he said because if we really believed he meant the things he said, we would look and live different. We would be involved in life with the poor, we would work for peace, we would give our money to the needy, we would value each and every person regardless of what the did or didn't have because that is what Jesus would do.

A couple quotes to share from his lecture last night:

Talking about how Jesus was homeless, he said "We worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday."

He also shared a conversation that he had with an Iraqi Christian pastor in Baghdad when he went over to Iraq during the Shock & Awe campaign. Shane was telling the pastor how surprised he was to see so many Christians in Iraq and the pastor replied, "You didn't invent Christianity in America. You just domesticated it."

"It's very fashionable for us as Christians to talk about the poor, but not too the poor. If we really care about poor people, we know the names of poor people."

Needless to say, it was very challenging to hear what Shane had to say. I am extremely blessed. And it really challenged me to examine how I live my life and how I spend the resources that God has blessed me with. I am still digesting and milling over so much of what he said.

Check out Shane's book "Irresistible Revolution" or his website, www.simpleway.org.