Minutes to Memories

I’m up to page 1080 in War & Peace. Only 375 pages to go!!!

I always have two books going at the same time – one for fun (War & Peace right now, believe it or not), and one for “work” (if you will). I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word and purchase the “work” book I’ve just begun: Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.

I just started it today, and I’m only 116 pages into a 358 page book, but I’m already convinced it’s a must-read for just about everyone in the universe. But I might be a bit biased, which I’ll explain in just a bit.

Here are a few quotes from the book so far:

* “I began to wonder if anybody still believed Jesus meant those things he said. I thought if we just stopped and asked, What if he really meant it? it could turn the world upside down. It was a shame Christians had become so normal.” (p 41)

* “At that moment, we decided to stop complaining about the church we saw, and we set our hearts on becoming the church we dreamed of.” (p 64)

* “We were not interested in a Christianity that offered these families only mansions and streets of gold in heaven when all they wanted was a bed for their kids now. And many Christians had an extra one.” (p 64)

* (quoting Rich Mullins) “You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too… But I guess that’s why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.” (p 98)

* “Jesus doesn’t exclude rich people; he just lets them know their rebirth will cost them everything they have.” (p 104)

* “I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.” (p 113)

And these are just for starters…

Shane has been to Calcutta to love the dying with Mother Teresa before she passed away. He has lived with the homeless in both Chicago and Philadelphia. He has played with children in Iraq while the bombs fell. He has helped inaugurate an emerging church they call "The Simple Way."

Now why this book resonates with me in particular:

I felt what Shane Claiborne felt in 1993. And I still do. At Christmas 1993, while teaching at a Christian high school in my hometown, I made a firm decision: I was moving to the inner city of Los Angeles to teach kids no one else cared about. I mailed my resume to Los Angeles and decided that I would go to L.A. at Spring Break to look for a place to live, and when summer rolled around I would be there. I did the difficult deed of telling my plans to my mom, but on this occasion I wasn’t seeking advice. My mind was made up.

One week later my entire life changed when I met the lady I knew then as “Erica’s mom.” By May of 1994 I was married and had become the 23-year-old dad of a girl heading into the 2nd grade.

I don’t read Shane Claiborne with regrets. Not at all. No “wonder what would have happened to me” ruminations. In fact, I cannot imagine having missed the people and experiences I’ve encountered on my journey. But there are no “I was so stupid and idealistic” thoughts that come to mind either when I read this book. I’m not jealous of Shane Claiborne, just related in some distant cousin sort of way.

What he says remains what I feel. My path has simply been a different one. Mine led through houseparenting at a children’s home, establishing a couple of Habitat for Humanity affiliates, becoming a full-time preacher of all things, and a host of other projects stemming from that fateful decision - including a whole host of experiences from a singular hurricane. I chose a path that involves having a family and a house and cars… But I’ve not given up on the language. Or the principles. And I’m not finished yet.

And thankfully, I’m learning there are others. And thankfully, Shane Claiborne has recorded his experiences so that I can learn from them.