A Radical Life

I'll let you in on a little secret— I've always idolized radical lives.  When I was a kid, my parents read me missionary biographies every night before bed.  I ate up stories of World War pilots and soldiers who risked everything, even some who sacrificed their lives for what they believed in.  I read Tom Clancy books when I was barely a teenager, and devoured Robinson Crusoe cover to cover at least 5 times.  My childhood hero Nate Saint tied this radical life in with my fascination for airplanes that I had as a child.

If you don't know his story, he was one of the four missionaries that accompanied Jim Elliot and was eventually martyred for his boldness, leaving behind a son and a wife and paving the way for a tribe of people to eventually hear the gospel.

Unfortunately enough, I think that modern day evangelicalism quietly pushes their stories away without much recognition.  Tragically, when I hear stories about modern evangelicals that lived radical lives for Jesus and were eventually killed for their boldness in proclaiming the gospel, the first words that come out of a Christian's mouth acknowledge their boldness, but in the same breath question their methods, suggesting that we Christians be more "prudent" in our approach.

That really pisses me off.

I can't help but to wonder if the disciples could have been more "prudent" in the way that they were martyred in sharing the faith.  And though I'm aware that there are many places to share the gospel that there is no risk, and there is certainly need there as well, unfortunately, our "prudence" has led to around a BILLION people on this earth who have never heard the gospel.  Never.  Not once.

Tears are clouding my eyes as I write this, and I can't ever think about the lost people in this world without my heart breaking for them.  I know what it's like to be enslaved to sin.  I am in no way more righteous than any one of them, but I grew up in a church with a family and community who pointed me constantly to Christ.  Despite this, still I rejected him at so many different moments through my life, spurning him for earthly pleasures and empty fantasies.

Yes, my heart breaks for those who have never heard the gospel.  Unfortunately, our "prudence" and our "political correctness" is daily allowing people to sink into an eternity apart from God, because we don't have the courage to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES of lost people.

Look at your own life.  Is your relationship with Christ worth sacrificing your life for?  Would you proclaim the gospel with your last breath, staring down the barrel of a loaded gun?  Would you go to a far away country, following the call of God to a place from which you might never return?

If the answer is no because God has called you to something else, then that's WONDERFUL.  Missionaries need support, prayer, and the gospel needs to be preached even in primarily Christian areas as well.

But if the answer is no because you're not "comfortable" with it, or it wouldn't be "prudent," then sorry for my anger, but I have no doubt that people who denied following God's call on their lives are the reason that thousands of people die every day without ever hearing the gospel.  And though God is sovereign, this is why I put the blame on the hands of people, and not upon his hands.

For whatever reason, God has chosen to work through the Church to accomplish his purposes on the earth.  Unfortunately, as I have seen so many times in my life, the Church is crippled by imperfection, a sin nature, and fallen human fragility.   But still, God uses it.  And perhaps because of the Church's partial ineptitude, the Gospel has failed to reach the world.

So what can we do to change it?  Or perhaps more importantly, how can God change that through and despite the broken mess that is me.

The answer that he has given me is this: a radical life.

A life without the human "prudence" that has led to the systematic paralyzation of the battle ready Church that is modeled in Scripture and in the Apostolic Church.  A life that does not cower back from enemies that rely upon human strength and false gods to receive their power.  A life that fights against the invisible, insidious and infectious disease that is complacency.

I will not seek out death for the gospel, but neither will I cower in the face of it, because my God is more powerful than any other power.  I will count my life on earth as nothing, because I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but he lives in me.

And this radical life starts on my knees in the morning.  It starts through reading Scripture and being conformed to the likeness of Christ slowly through the power of the Spirit.  It comes through the systematic diminishment of myself, and the inversely proportional and ever increasing presence of Jesus in my heart.   It comes from a life of humility, one that is not afraid to confess sin and failure and turn them in for the abounding and completely undeserved grace of a perfect, sacrificial, incarnate God who became sin for us so we could become his righteousness.  Righteousness we could never earn.

I don't pursue a radical life because it will get me to heaven or gain me favor with God.  I will from this day forth pursue a radical life dedicated to glorifying and lifting high Jesus' name because he first lived a radical life for me, sacrificing his heavenly throne to save a wretch like me.

I live for nothing less than knowing God and making him known to all.

Please if you have reached the end of this, lift me up in prayer, that I will seek God in every moment of my existence, conforming myself to his plan for me, no matter what the cost.  And pray for the people who have never heard.  Pray that they will be able to hold on until someone reaches them and shows them the beauty of a truth that saves.  Pray that more radical people would arise from the church, with no fear.  Pray that every Christian would someday come to the point where they could sacrifice their lives for a God who first sacrificed his life for them.

And listen for God's call on your life.  Pray he would make himself known to you more and more.