So there is this book. During the 2 months it has taken me to read it, I have had a great array of emotions while chewing on the text. Some parts make me laugh, cry, question, yell, … and I think at one point I got up from where I was sitting to give it a standing ovation. It has made me think outside of the box and look at normal a little differently. Here are some snippets to intrigue you… but if anyone ever reads the book I would love to dialogue with you afterwards.
***”I had a college professor who once said ‘All around you people will be tiptoeing through life just to arrive safely at death. Dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just do not tiptoe’…I’m not sure when we got the notion that Christianity is safe or that Christians should play it cool. Much of us live in such fear of death that it’s as if nobody believes in the resurrection anymore. Sometimes people ask me if I’m scared to live in the inner city. I usually reply, ‘I’m more scared to live in the suburbs’. The Scriptures say that we should not fear the things that destroy the body, but we are to fear what can destroy the soul (Matt 10:28). While the ghettos might have their fare share of violence and crime, the suburbs are home to the more subtle demonic forces- numbness, complacency, comfort-and it is these things that can eat away at our souls.”
***”What I love about Jesus is that He always has an imagination. The familiar “turn the other cheek” verse from the Sermon on the Mount does not suggest that we just let people step all over us. I instead, Jesus is pointing us towards something that imaginatively disarms others. When hit on the cheek, turn and look the person in the eye. Do not cower or punch them back. Make sure they look into your eyes and see a sacred humanity, and it will become increasingly harder for them to hurt you. When a soldier asks you to walk a mile with them…just walk with them two miles instead of one. Talk to them and woo them into our movement by your love. Walter Wink said ‘evil can be opposed without being mirrored. Enemies can be nuetralized without being destroyed.’ Then we can look into the eyes of a centurion and see not a beast but a child, and then walk with that child a few miles. Look into the eyes of the ones who are hardest for you to like, and see the One you love.”
The Irresistible Revolution: Shane Claiborne
