Ordinary Radical

Today my husband & I, along with our friend Hope, drove up to Lee University to see Shane Claiborne speak in a chapel service. We got there right as things were getting started and were almost turned away. In fact, we later found out that they had to close the doors with nearly 200 students waiting to come inside. I suppose the fact that Hope & I had infants strapped to us helped earn us some sympathy- they let us stand in the aisle and listen. I love Shane Claiborne because he does the things I am afraid to do. I'd love to run off to Africa to love on babies in an orphanage, or sell everything and live with the poor, or be arrested for sleeping in the park with homeless people, but I've got a mortgage and kids and what about insurance and... you get the idea. But he follows Christ in a "radical" way. He talked about his time working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta and the kids in his neighborhood in Camden and worshiping with believers in Iraq. He challenged the notion of "pro-life" and suggested we need to love people "from the womb to the tomb"- changing the way we look at welfare, war, the death penalty, and much more.

Honestly, there wasn't much that he said that we hadn't already heard or read from him before, but it was still so refreshing to hear it again. It was even more refreshing to me to see a group of young people so excited to hear him that they were sitting on the floor in the auditorium. Especially in this election season, when "evangelical" and "values voter" are again loosely defined phrases being tossed around, it was good to see young people who understand that poverty and war and hunger are "values issues" too. It gives me a hope for the church, our future, and our relationship to the rest of the world.

Speaking of the future, this was Little Sister's second time to "hear" Shane, and she is only 4 months old. Granted, the first time she had to hear him through my tummy, and I'm not sure she had developed ears yet, but still, she was there. Both of my girls are amazing, and I have great expectations for both of them. But part of the reason we chose her name (aside from being able to agree on VERY few names and even fewer Biblical ones) was because of my favorite professor at Georgetown. She taught me about the Bible & church history, but also about being a strong, intelligent layperson and woman of God. There were many times I looked to her as an example of faith and grace when I found myself angry or cynical about the church and our imperfections. She introduced me to Molly Marshall and encouraged me to be the first female student to "preach" (careful now, might make someone uncomfortable) in a Georgetown convocation. My hope & prayer is that my little girl might change the world, like Shane, or at least someone's world, like Dr. Hoyle did mine & countless others. And maybe, as I'm trying to encourage my girls to live out their convictions, I will be further encouraged to do the same.