Invitation

I keep getting calls, fb messages, and pass along comments from people who have been impacted by this book, so, I figured that it might be time to go back and take a closer look at it all. Over the next several days - weeks? - I'll be rambling based off of quotes that stood out to me. :)

If you haven't read the book yet, go do it!

“His invitations to potential followers were clearly more costly than the crowds were ready to accept, and He seemed to be okay with that. He focused instead on the few who believed Him when He said radical things. And, through their radical obedience to Him, He turned the course of history in a new direction.”

 - Radical by David Platt

This... this is hard for me. I was always one of those kids who looked around before starting anything, to make sure that I was not the only one. There didn't have to be a lot of other people doing it. One partner in crime was often enough. But, if they wasn't that one, well, I got good at sitting on things, at ignoring that squirming wiggle in my chest that just wanted to move, to go do whatever it was.

I trained my inner wiggle well. I learned how to bite my tongue. And, in turn, I learned to be less than radically obedient to the Spirit's promptings.

I learned how to say, “No,” to Jesus.

Because, it's not always fun to be radically obedient. It gets awkward to not have the answers or the actions or the stuff that people expect you to have. It's uncomfortable to explain that you are doing something because you heard – but not audibly – from God – who also happens to not be visible – that you were supposed to do it.

That's the sort of thing that, in non-religious circles, gets you medication.

But, that's what Jesus used. That's what he used to change cities and countries and continents. And, that's what he used to change every. single. life. he ever touched.

Jesus said hard things and then waited until all of the rumbling and surreptitious glancing to all sides had died down, waited until those who were ready to follow Him stood up and walked to His side, even if they were all alone.

He waited for them until they realized that any decision they made would be a radical one.

Because, not following the Son of God is just as radical as following Him.