Be a radical!

"As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding on their journey, someone said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.'"
Luke 9:57

Following Jesus with just our opinions could be hard enough. We would need to be against war and violence of any kind. We would need to forgive. We would truly need to welcome the stranger, lovingly instead of fearing those who are not like us. In fact, we would need to abandon fear all together. Jesus didn't seem to fear anyone or anything, did he?  But, as hard as sharing the same opinions of Jesus, the really hard part would be following his actions. We would need to live simply, since Jesus had "nowhere to his head," (v. 58). We would need to physically embrace those on the fringe, those our society rejects. Now it's getting harder! Maybe it would be easier to follow St. Francis, whose feast we celebrate today? After all, his life looks a bit charming in the movie, "Brother Sun, Sister Moon," doesn't it? That is until he strips naked in the middle of town and walks away from his wealth and family; the townspeople aghast and jeering. OK, so radical discipleship isn't as easy as we'd like it to be. But as Tom Hanks says in "A League of Their Own" about baseball, "If it was easy, everyone would do it!" Today, in honor of St. Francis, let's do the harder thing. Let's take concrete action today to recycle if we don't already. (And maybe ask ourselves Why don't we already?) Let's embrace someone who we may find difficult. Let's reach out to a stranger who we may feel a bit leery of. Let's be simple in our choices today...simple meals, fewer frills, more awareness for the other guy. Let's try to be a bit more radical in our discipleship today! Love, heidi