Thursday, January 17, 2008

Lots of questions, looking for answers

Dai Jesu achoinekwa, ndaizofara naye. Taizofara naye.

Pondering life, Jesus, love and what I am doing here. I praise God for the prophetic words of an ordinary radical.

“There were plenty of folks talking about the gospel and writing books about it, but as far as I could tell, living out the gospel had yet to be tried in recent days.”

“I was driven mostly by ideology and theology, which isn’t very sustainable, even if they’re true. I wondered if Jesus had anything to say about this world and I began to question how much he cared whether I listened to Metallica. Sometimes when we evangelized, I felt like I was selling Jesus like a used-car salesman, like people’s salvation depended on how well I articulated things. And that’s a lot of pressure...Sometimes it felt like Jesus was a blue-light special at Kmart, or like I was in one of those infomercials in which people are way too happy to give you lots of cheap stuff you don’t need. Really, all I had was a lot of Christian clutter, in my bedroom and in my soul. I began to doubt whether the Bible stories looked like they did in Sunday school. I needed some relief for my overchurched soul. So I became quite disenchanted with the church, though I was still fascinated with Jesus.”

-Shane Claiborne

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