Thursday, February 26, 2009

Radically Modest

Source: Uncommon Decency by Richard Mouw. Intervarsity Press, 1992. pg 168.
Keywords: modesty, radical, discipleship

"Sharing in God's patience means being modest in what we expect of other people. The need for modesty once impressed upon me in a dramatic way by the sociologist Peter Berger. At a meeting we were both attending, I made a statement--this was in my younger days!--that every Christian is called to engage in radical obedience to God's program of justice, righteousness, and peace.

Berger observed that I was operating with a rather grandiose notion of "radical obedience." Somewhere in a retirement home, he said, there is a Christian woman whose greatest fear in life is that she will be humilitated by being unable to control her bladder in the cafeteria line. For this woman, the greatest act of radical obedience to Jesus Christ is to place herself in the hands of a loving God every time she goes off for a meal.

Berger's point was profound. God calls us to deal with the challenges before us, and often our most "radical" challenges are very "little" ones.

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