Christlike<\/em>.<\/p>\nI had an opportunity last week to sit down with Richard Foster and get his thoughts on a wide variety of topics. \u00a0Since I was planning on writing this series, I mentioned my concern that some people (including myself) might pursue radical Christian living for the benefit of what I\u2019ll call Narcissus\u2019 Camera. \u00a0What I mean is this: we sometimes find ourselves going about our lives and seeing the world through our own eyes, but simultaneously observing our from the outside as it might be perceived or told by someone else. \u00a0So here I am feeding the homeless on Skid Row, but even while I\u2019m working with the homeless I\u2019m also observing myself, and approving of myself, working with the homeless. \u00a0A part of me is conscious of others and their needs, and a part of me is watching myself on video and admiring how I look. \u00a0I\u2019m watching myself through a camera that hovers somewhere over my shoulder, and ultimately I\u2019m hoping that others will, someday and somehow, see the instant replay.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m taking a bit of a risk here and assuming I\u2019m not alone in this. \u00a0Perhaps I\u2019m a uniquely narcissistic individual. \u00a0I do not take that possibility lightly. \u00a0But while I\u2019m convinced that most people are better than I am in this respect (I know that I am highly prideful), I\u2019m also convinced that my troubles are not unique to me (I am not uniquely prideful). \u00a0Foster seemed to think this is common, even \u201cthe Achilles\u2019 Heel\u201d of the striving for radicality. \u00a0He spoke of a time in his own life when he felt the praise of others, and the amount of fame he had achieved, were puffing him up. \u00a0Called \u201cto let go of my need to be known or to be important,\u201d he withdrew from writing and public speaking in search of \u201cinterior crucifixion\u201d (he actually thought he would never return to writing) until he felt a year-and-a-half later that he had learned his lesson.<\/p>\n
(Of course, the possibilities here are endless; Narcissus\u2019 Camera can follow us into solitude, and we can gain satisfaction at the thought of playing the video for friends in later years. \u00a0Sometimes it\u2019s the most prideful people (like myself) who learn how to conceal their pride best, but I give Foster the benefit of the doubt.)<\/p>\n
Foster also spoke of Mother Teresa, who did not set out to be radical but to follow Jesus and serve Jesus in the least of these. \u00a0She disappeared from history for decades, and God eventually raised her up. \u00a0She had no desire to be known; in fact, it seems she would have preferred anonymity. \u00a0But, Foster said, \u201cThere are ten thousand Mother Teresas we\u2019ve never heard of, men and women who continue to be obscure and do their work in secret \u2014 and that\u2019s okay with them. \u00a0If you\u2019re truly radical, you\u2019re not concerned that anybody sees you.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is just a word of caution. \u00a0It should not dampen the zeal of a young person who wants to give her all for the kingdom of God. \u00a0It should direct it. \u00a0It should tell us something about Christian discipleship, its trajectory and its goal. \u00a0It\u2019s not a bad thing, in my view, to be conscious of the ultimate Observer and to seek to do what would please Him, as long as this flows from gratitude and not a spiritual performance mentality. \u00a0And mixed motives are rarely a good reason to refrain from doing something good, but I do think we should be conscious of how our motives grow mixed when we let Narcissus\u2019 Camera follow us along on our good-deed missions.<\/p>\n
Narcissus\u2019 Camera is a perilous piece of equipment. \u00a0It may take a lifetime to destroy it. \u00a0Or we may never in this life fully destroy it. \u00a0As we pursue Christ and a life that is faithful to him (since we cannot cease doing the deeds that are right until we can do them only for the right reasons), we should pray and examine ourselves, discipline our thoughts and seek accountability and community, understanding and wisdom, in the hope that we can disassemble the camera piece by piece.<\/p>\n
The question I want to address tomorrow is this. \u00a0I believe that the church in America is absolutely in need of challenging and reform in order to address the idols of materialism, consumerism and comfort. \u00a0What exactly is the reform that the American church requires? \u00a0How exactly should that reform be framed? \u00a0What are the right terms and categories to explain it? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong>I think our discussion so far of \u201cradical\u201d Christian discipleship contains some clues. \u00a0If you haven\u2019t already done so, especially since I typically write short series such as this one, please connect with me via Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> or subscribe by email<\/a> or RSS<\/a>, in order to follow along. \u00a0And I\u2019m sincerely interested to hear your thoughts on the above questions.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve now written \u201cAre Conservative Churches Getting Radical?\u201d and \u201cThe Dangers of \u2018Radical Faith\u2019 (and What They Teach Us.\u201d \u00a0I hope tomorrow to publish more positive suggestions on what radical discipleship might look like, especially in community (and in conversation with David Platt\u2019s Radical Together), but presently I want to explain something in greater detail. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[152,338,340,347],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radical-faith","tag-david-platt","tag-radical","tag-radical-discipleship","tag-richard-foster"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>A part of the problem here is that \u201cradical,\u201d at least in its current usage, is a comparative term. \u00a0You are radical in comparison to what is normal. \u00a0You are radical when you are deemed extraordinary and extreme. \u00a0So the language of radicality can implicitly set up a dynamic in which we are comparing and approving of ourselves in relation to others, where the focus is on being\u00a0dramatically different <\/em>instead of being\u00a0Christlike<\/em>.<\/p>\n