Radical

I just finished Radical by David Platt. While there is much about it that I disagree with, I’m working on the challenge he makes at the end. The overarching theme is that Jesus’s call to His followers is far more radical than what most of us do. Coincidentally, this week’s lectionary Gospel reading is Luke 5:1-11, the story of Jesus calling Simon (Peter) and his partners James and John, sons of Zebedee. The key verse: “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.”

This is hard. I am not at the point where I can leave everything behind. Too many people depend on me. And yet, I can make small changes in that direction. Which brings me to Platt’s challenge: to spend a year with the following changes:

• Pray. Pray every day for the world. It’s unreasonable to pray for the whole world every day and have any depth, but over the course of a month or a year, pray for God’s people everywhere.
• Read. Read the Bible–the whole Bible. There are lots of ways to do this. I’m using the Bible In One Year app from Alpha. I had started that a while ago and kind of fell off the wagon. I’m back at it now.
• Give. Give sacrificially to something that furthers God’s kingdom. Be involved, so that it’s personal and not just financial. For now, I’m focused on The Rolla Mission.
• Go. Go somewhere outside your normal life to spread the Gospel. One thing I’m considering getting involved in is Solar Under the Sun, which provides solar energy to communities in the developing world. The idea is to (1) serve far away communities, (2) spread the Gospel, and (3) see the Gospel in a new light.
• Community. Be a part of a Christian community. I have that already in First Presbyterian Church of Rolla.

A big part of being successful in this will be keeping myself on task. Every morning, my routine is to play on my phone while I drink coffee. Just a complete waste of time. I need to make a series of small changes so that I spend my time wisely.