Wednesday, February 1, 2012

This feels comfortable

I love our couch. Being 6'3", it is sometimes hard to find a couch that is comfortable to sit in and one that you can lay out for a nap on. This couch does both. It has fluffy arms that start low and get higher as you move out, almost like a pillow when you lay, but great for your arms when you sit. And, they are wide enough to hold a plate. Nirvana! No wonder I hold on to the couch even though one arm has a "slight" hole where the dog chewed it, and it is starting to show wear in other places as well.

David Platt, in his book Radical, says, "...somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves." (page 7)

We read this book in Journeymen last year. I thought that the presenters had done an admirable job of presenting a message that many really don't want to hear. At the end of their time they shared and discussed Platt's challenges at the end of the book. They are as follows:
  • Pray for the entire world
  • Read through the entire Word
  • Sacrifice your money for a specific purpose
  • Spend your time in another context
  • Commit your life to a multiplying community (page 185)
Challenging and uncomfortable stuff. Jesus said a lot of challenging and uncomfortable stuff too. But this is stuff that I need to face up to. Maybe not these specific ones, as David Platt is not Jesus, nor would he claim to be. But I need to take a closer look at this.

Oh, the commercial is over. There, that is much better. Now I can get back to my couch.

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