So heavenly minded...

The more I’ve learned to properly enjoy earthly things, the more I long for heaven. Because I love this life, eternity in God’s presence has gone from a distant hope to tangible reality, like something right in front of me but just out of reach.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

What about pain?

As I see it, complacent Christianity tries to avoid pain at all costs. Then it tries to numb whatever pain gets through even if the anesthetic of choice causes more damage in the long run. On the other hand, obsessive Christianity glamorizes suffering and even seeks it in order to gain a sense of spiritual superiority. Being radically normal means that you accept suffering and allow God to use it for your ultimate joy. I hate pain. I hate it so much that I don’t want any of it to go to waste. I want to see God wring the most possible good out of all suffering, even if it’s as trivial as a stubbed toe.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

So why do it?

I believe legalism is so popular because it’s much easier than carefully evaluating what’s earthly and what’s worldly. Not better or more fun, but easier. By simply following a list someone gives you, you can feel safe and secure. Likewise, worldliness is pretty easy—just plow thoughtlessly into everything the world (in the bad sense) has to offer. It’s also a lot of fun…at least until you start suffering the consequences. It’s also easier to mock legalistic Christians than to pursue righteousness.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

So what is legalism?

Wholeheartedly pursing obedience isn’t legalism—it’s happy holiness. We fall off the cliff of legalism when we think our status with God depends on how well we obey. We can also fall off when we live our lives by a list of rules that exceed those in the Bible and expect others to do the same.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

Cooperation

God could provide for every need, feed every person, meet every church budget, and fully support every missionary without our cooperation. Instead he chooses to meet all of these needs through us. This isn’t efficient, but it gives us the honor and joy of partnering with him. The downside is that our failure to embrace this honor means that people go hungry, churches shut down, and the gospel goes unpreached.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

Content

Destitution and absolute poverty are evidence of a world broken by sin. God never intended people to live with their basic needs unmet. But once our basic needs are taken care of, contentment is possible. In fact, if you aren’t content with that, you never will be. Let me repeat that—if you’re not content with what you currently have, you’ll never be content. You’ll always want just a little more. A small raise, a newer car, a bigger wardrobe. Nothing will be enough without contentment. Contentment brings freedom and joy, but greed and ingratitude bring slavery and misery.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
I was just reading in the Psalms this morning and read this familiar verse:

But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content. Psalm 131:2 NIV

Yep.
</idle musing>

Money isn't the issue; greed is

The problem isn’t with having money but with wanting to get rich, loving money, being eager for it, and getting it any way you can. Proverbs is filled with similar warnings, including the prayer “give me neither poverty nor riches.” Even warning people against being “eager for money” is too radical for many of us. It seems so anti-American.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

Get away with it—or get away from it?

We need to stop thinking of sin as something we get away with and start seeing it as something we’re saved from. We never get away with sin. We may be forgiven and restored, but sin always damages us and the ones we love.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
Indeed. Baxter Kruger talks about the rewiring of the brain that the Holy Spirit accomplishes. That's what we need, the renewing of the mind; the discarding of old habits that no longer have the power to bind us—unless we let them!

Our cry shouldn't be "Set us free, Lord!" so much as "Thank you for setting us free! Now rewire us so that we may live in that freedom!"
</idle musing>

Eat those lima beans!

It seems to me that complacent Christians don’t believe that all of God’s rules are meant to bring earthly joy, which means they don’t believe that God genuinely wants our best. Our actions usually prove what we really believe. If we believed that obedience brings joy, we wouldn’t need to be told to do the right thing. Instead, we see obedience as the spiritual equivalent of eating our lima beans. (I detest lima beans.)

Obsessive Christians don’t really believe that obedience brings earthly joy either, so they obey God out of joyless obligation. Obsessive Christians keep shoving the lima beans down their throats because they’re supposed to. They believe they have to suffer now in order to be happy in heaven.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
Me too! I hate lima beans, so his description is exactly correct...whyare you doing what you are doing? And, do you really believe that God is good?

If we are honest with ourselves—ok, if I am honest with myself—the answer is "sometimes." Sometimes I really believe God is good. Other times, well, I'm not so sure—not that I would admit that at the time! But my actions show what I really believe!

Lord, have mercy! Transform me (us?) into a people who truly believe you are good.
</idle musing>

When will we ever learn?

Why do we choose to sin? Because at the time, we believe we’ll be happier doing what’s wrong. That, of course, is a lie. It’s not just any lie—it’s a repackaging of the first recorded lie. The same lie is repeated down through the ages, telling us that sin is more fun than righteousness.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
Indeed. That, in a nutshell, is the theology of life. We sin because we believe the lie that it's more fun to thumb our noses at God...
</idle musing>

Continually adjusting

Maybe balance isn’t the best word. It implies finding a fixed point between two extremes. Have you ever tried to balance on top of a post? You don’t keep your balance by staying perfectly still. You stay balanced by making countless little adjustments to counter wind, muscle fatigue, and friends who are trying to push you off. Likewise, the balance between earthly and spiritual joy is anything but static. Most of the time, earthly joys capture our attention and we need to lean into spiritual things in order to keep balanced. But the minute we start to feel confident in our spiritual disciplines, self-righteousness and legalism begin to pull us the other way, so we need to embrace earthly joys more.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
Many decades ago now, I heard a sermon about the yoke that Jesus talks about in Matthew 11:30. He said it might be easy, but it's real. And the thing about yokes is that you have to continually adjust to them. You pull too hard in one direction and it rubs and you get a blister. You slow down, and the cart pushes you and about chops your head off. Anyway, you get the idea—it's a continual adjustment. Life isn't static, why should we expect our spiritual life to be static!
</idle musing>

Keep the goal in mind

Yes, stuff distracts us. The more we acquire, the more we are distracted from the things we already have and from more important things, including the message of hope and joy from our Savior. Holiday fanfare can be distracting, so it’s no surprise that obsessive Christians idealize a gift-free Christmas spent serving at a homeless shelter. There’s a place for that (I’ve spent a couple of Christmases serving at homeless shelters), but joyful celebrations have their place as well.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

The difference is...

Because we share a lot of common ground, the Christian life may not look all that different on the surface from the world’s ideals. It makes sense to them. From the outside, we look like good neighbors and ideal employees. But when our non-Christian family, friends, and coworkers scratch below the surface, they discover that we’re driven by wholehearted devotion to God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
At least, it should be...
</idle musing>

Not too much has changed except the names

God told the Israelites to be different as a means to an end—his plan was to bless the entire world through them. If they were not forced to be different from the Gentiles culturally, they would cease to be different from them morally. By the time Jesus came, the Jews had gotten so good at being culturally separate that they forgot about their original mission. The means had become confused with the end.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
Yep. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Only now, substitute Christian for Jew. And add the word "safe" to your description of life. The "safe" radio station. The "safe" mission trip. The "safe" alternative. Make our country "safe" for Christianity.

Tell that to Peter as he hung upside down on a cross. Or to Paul as he gets his head hacked off. Or to the millions of Christians today who are in real danger of being put to death or imprisoned because of their Christian faith.

I certainly don't want persecution—nobody should!—but if that's what it takes to have a vibrant faith, then let's kick "safe" to the curb.
</idle musing>

A worthy pursuit

If he loves and values you enough to send his Son to die for you, to pull you out of the pit of your sin, do you think he will be satisfied leaving you at the edge of that pit? He has much greater aspirations for you than merely keeping you out of hell. Pursue greatness. Pursue your calling and don’t worry whether others think it’s spiritual enough—God’s opinion is the only one that really matters.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

Greatness? Nope!

Our problem with greatness isn’t that we aren’t capable of it, but that we have a distorted view of it. The church unwittingly perpetuates this distortion by focusing more on celebrities than on everyday folks. Greatness isn’t measured by the amount of money we give, the number of people we serve, or the books we write. Your greatness is measured by how completely you fulfill God’s mission for you.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
In other words, we've bought into the American Dream. Bigger is better. Never mind that Jesus said the greatest will be the least. Or that the first shall be last. Or that we must deny ourselves. We know better! After all, we're living in the twenty-first century in "the greatest country in the world!"

The words of Amos come to mind

"You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities. Amos 3:2 NRSV

Mind you, I don't think the U.S. is a specially chosen nation, but most do so the quotation is appropriate.
</idle musing>

Why are you doing it?

The difference between being obsessive and being radically normal has nothing to do with the magnitude of your sacrifice or how strange it sounds to others. If your sacrifice is based on guilt, obligation, or legalism, you’re being obsessive. However, if you do something because it’s your joy to obey God in that way, you’re being radically normal.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
At last! A voice of sanity! I'm liking where this book is going. It reminds me in many ways of Watchman Nee's Normal Christian Life. Nee contended that the normal Christian life was to be victorious and sin-free. Not what most would call "normal!" This author is doing the same—and he's right!
</idle musing>

Just one thing

The only thing standing between you and a life of wholehearted obedience isn’t your job, place of birth, income, or knowledge of the Bible. It’s your willingness to fall into Jesus’s arms and lean completely on his grace. Repent of self-sufficiency—it was never about you or what you brought to the table anyway. It has always been about what God can do through people just like you and me.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
Yep. Several (many?) years ago I was reading through Finney's Lectures on the Revival of Religion. One of his lectures talked about this very thing. He emphasized that you can do any (ethically permissible) job to the glory of God. You didn't have to be a "super saint;" all you had to do was change the motive. Stop doing it for yourself and start doing it for God.

Too simple, right? But he was correct. It doesn't take more energy to do something for God. It just requires a change of emphasis. And a willingness to die to self. And that is probably the real issue, isn't it?
</idle musing>

Role models?

God called the prophets to do some pretty weird things because that’s what their situations called for. Their stories continue to encourage and inspire us, but they don’t necessarily provide point-by-point direction on how to live in our contemporary situations. When we focus on only a few figures with unique missions in extreme times, we miss just how much the Bible has to say to the majority of believers who are trying to live normal lives in ordinary circumstances.—Radically Normal, electronic edition

<idle musing>
Right on! Try imitating Ezekiel...tie yourself down and cook stuff on dung! Or how about Isaiah, running around in a loin cloth for a few years. I don't think so!
</idle musing>

Too normal

From personal experience, I already knew how damaging the two-tiered mentality was for those presumptuous enough to assign themselves to the top. As a pastor, I’ve discovered how detrimental it is for those who believe they belong on the bottom tier. Most Christians look at the greats—the apostle Paul, Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa—and decide they can never measure up. Or they look at missionaries, street preachers, and pastors and feel certain that they just aren’t on the same level as professional Christians. Too many Christians feel guilty for their normal, everyday lives, which doesn’t involve performing miracles, standing behind a pulpit, or sharing the gospel in a distant jungle.—Radically Normal, electronic edition