Read the rest.According to J.I. Packer it is. In the ever-popular book Knowing God, Packer calls balance “a horrible, self-conscious word.” Terry Johnson, the author of When Grace Comes, mostly agrees with Packer and states that he find himself ”bothered by few things so much as the preoccupation with maintaining a ‘well-rounded life.’” He states, ”I am particularly annoyed by those professing Christians whose chief ambition is to not get ‘carried away’ or step too far outside of the mainstream.”
I tend to agree with Johnson and Packer on this. I have found in my own life, and the life of many of my brothers and sisters in Christ, that balance is too often a means of covering up cowardice and even disobedience. It seems that whenever I am searching for a reason not to do something sacrificially and to go beyond the call, I revert to the excuse that I must maintain “balance.” Yet in our Lord’s call for discipleship, it seems that the last thing we hear from him is our idea of balance. Listen to these commands:
Matt. 5:29-30: If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Luke 6:27-30: But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.
***********************************************************************
Yes and amen. Just don't sacrifice your family along the way. There are way to disqualify yourself in the name of being "radical". Stay humble.
1 comment:
Francis Chan speaks about some of the same stuff, pointing out that we along with the world think of "fanatics" in a bad way, when in fact a radical like an abortion-clinic bomber is not actually radically loving Jesus, he's completely missed the point. That is to say that there is a right and wrong way of being radical, in this case being on fire for God.
Post a Comment