Claiborne says many times that Christians need to show more of God’s love to those who we encounter everyday. I defiantly agree that as Christians we need to show God’s love by loving those around us. I love his call for action in the world and to show the world what Christianity is all about. However, I did feel that he spent a lot of time convincing us that the way to do this was through helping the homeless and the poor. This is great, but there are a lot of other ways that we can help the world and show love. God can be working anywhere. This seems like something Claiborne wants everyone to know, but he makes in seem like this is only being done on the streets.
In the book, The Irresistible Revolution, Claiborne writes that people don’t describe Christians with words like love, grace, or community. Christians are sometimes thought to just be complete hypocrites and that is terrible. As Christians we should spread love to the world. People who say that they are Christians and then turn around and act an opposite way to what the Bible says and just follows the world’s way give Christians a bad name. Claiborne confronts this, but sadly Christian hypocrites are probably not likely to read his book because they do not usually act like a Christian in the world.
I love the stories of forgiveness that Claiborne uses in Chapter 10. It reminds us of true forgiveness and of God’s forgiveness. The stories of forgiveness remind me just how much we need God’s help in this world. It would be hard for me to give forgiveness to someone who meant harm to me or people that I care about, but with God’s help and love I can learn how to forgive a lot easier.
I am not sure that God ONLY works in little ways. I guess it depends on the way a person looks at it, but God can do great things too. He chooses to work in all different ways. I see it from the perspective that anything that God does will be great in the end. Claiborne spends a great amount of the book talking about the small things God does and it seems like everything that is good is small, poor, or last. Many different types of people can do many different small (or great) things.
i agree with you on how he focuses too much on one aspect of changing the world. it's truly impossible for everyone to give up everything they own and live out life like he does, and i believe he should have tried to incorporate the fact that although we are not poor we can still make a difference too. My own belief is that God can work through anyone, no matter how rich or poor, or mean or nice. I agree with most of what Shane is trying to get at, but it does almost make me feel like he's saying that i have to be an extremely radical christian just to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteSarah, I agree with you and Shane that there are far too many Christians who don't act like they are convinced that we are called to replicated Jesus' love. After all, we are God's hands on this earth. I agree that there are other outlets to show Jesus' love than just through homeless/poverty ministry, but Shane focuses on that for a reason. These are the people that we forget about, the people we turn our eyes from when we pass them on the street rather then stopping and chatting with them. The poor don't just want our money, and often times they will be the first to admit that. They want us to acknowledge them, love them, and maybe for us to offer them a meal. We can show God's love by visiting the sick, the imprisoned, the unsaved, and the lonely, but I think Shane focuses on the poor because Christians seem to not understand the bigger picture when it comes to that group.
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah. I liked your blog! You made many good points. Many people tend to focus simply on the poor. Maybe Claiborne's point was to emphasize that if the poor people were helped, then we all would be in the same boat and we all will be helped in whichever way that we need? It is obvious that there are endless ways to better our world, whether it be through helping the poor or not. There are an endless number of problems that we face. I think that the number of poor people could greatly diminish if a mass amount of people go about it the correct way. To clarify, there are many other ways that poverty can be solved, other than having millions of people living like Claiborne does. This is only my opinion of course. I do, however, believe that extreme measures need to be taken, but these measures need to be rooted from a more realistic vision.
ReplyDeleteSara, I agree with you that there are many ways that we as christians can help our society come to know God more. there are many ways to do this. however, i think that Claiborne does a good job of informing us how "he" shows God's love. i dont think that he spends too much time trying to convince us that his way is the "only way." i just believe that he is telling us his way of doing things. i know personally i am not strong enough to do the things that Claiborne does, but it is good that there are people out there that can do that. like laura said, we forget about the homeless and poor people. Shane does a good job by getting us to realize that they are out there everywhere even though we do not notice them.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with everything you said. However, I'm questioning wether I really think that what he says IS extreme. It seems to me that the only way to change the world, and to make it a place where there are no poor, no unloved, no hungry, ect., is to completely revolutionize what our values and beliefs are. We say that we are Christians, but we walk past a homless beggar on the weekends (thats just some of us, and just one example). There are so many charities out there that benefit the poor, the unloved, and the sick, but how many of us have made an effort to seek these places out and volunteer on a regular basis. I'll be the first to admit that I haven't volunteered on a regular basis. I really think that the whole point of this book is to make us question most if not all of our previously held beliefs about what it means to be a Christian, and I really think that for most of us, becoming a true follower of Jesus (like Shane) is a radical change. Wether or not we do it his way, our find a way of our own, we have to do something.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't think Shane expects everyone to drop everything, sell everything they have and move to the inner city to volunteer with him. He says in part of the book that different people bring different things to what is really means to follow Jesus. He talked about how a doctor can use his skills to help heal the sick who cant afford treatment... and so on.
Sara, I like what you had to say and i agree that chapter 10 has some great stories! I think that throughout the book Claiborne makes it a point to speak against comfortable christians. In America the upper class owns everything. There is no middle class economically, and it's true when they say the rich gets richer. Being from Philadelphia i can relate to everything he is saying. It seems so extreme the way he is going about with everything, but in the city we are in Panic Mode!!!! People get murdered every single day, and there is not one corner without a homeless man asking for some change. I agree that there are more things than just the "little way", but i agree with Claiborne when he says God's plan is more obvious with the poor. In the Bible, God is always with the poor, and when he uses a rich man they always end up rejecting everything. In return they are closer to God. God is not of this world, and never wants anything of this world to be put before him. My dad is a social worker in Kesington (where Claiborne lives) and i have helped feed the homeless before. If we do the little things, and be with the homeless on a personal level, i believe that God will reach out to us and make his plan more obvious. I'm sure that the rich need God as much as the poor, but the poor need God's people to help them, and that is our responsibility as Christians!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that we all need to show more of God’s love. Shane mentions that it wasn’t necessarily Jesus’ miracles that left a lasting impression on people, but rather it was his love for them. Sure he fed the thousands with only five loaves and two fish, but the next day they were all hungry again. However, it was his love and compassion towards these people that mattered. Maybe we won’t change the world, but by showing God’s love to those around us, whether it be the poor and homeless or the wealthy and prosperous, I do believe we can make a difference.
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