Thursday, June 28, 2007

Irresistible Revolution

I was prepared not to like Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.Prepared to dismiss him as another pie-in-the-sky hippie who, after his parents sacrificed to rear him and give him a college education, decided to "give it all up" to live in a commune and eschew the American way of life.

I am about halfway through the book, and I must admit that what he says is making a lot of sense. For example, he asks, when did the church stop living Christianity and just start studying it? And he says we can end poverty (the early church did), while we are fond of quoting " the poor will be with you always." His organization The Simple Way has been fined for giving away food because they did not have a food distribution license. He calls himself "an ordinary radical." He is not espousing a doctrine, but rather a way of life in which the main idea is
following Jesus.

He does not issue a clarion call for us to selling everything we have and give it to the poor, but rather to live more simply and give our changed lives to helping those who need us.

Today what struck me was that Zacchaeaus sold only half of what he had, with it paid back four times what he owed, and then began to "redefine" his career.

Now my next question to myself is how can I live more simply and redefine my retirement?

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