We live in a world fueled by consumerism, greed, addiction, abuse, apathy, and hatred among other things. Much of this can be readily seen just by switching on the TV. On one station a ticker sprints across the bottom of the screen announcing the worth of major stocks, with regular coverage of the NY stock exchange. The same channel documents never-ending news reports of murders and violent crime, drug addiction and overdose, child abuse and molestation among other terrible news. It seems like every commerical punctuating a television or radio show and ever billboard illustrating the passing interstate has a claim to the next best product that we never knew we needed.
This is the world that we call home. America is the home of the so-called “American Dream” – a dream where those with nothing can come take advantage of the land of opportunity and make something great out of themselves. This is apparently the beauty of capitalism. Now is not the time for a critique or theological reading of a political system, though that would be fun.
Every marketing scheme, advertising ploy, and selling point revolves around the self. Learning to be a better me. Improving my life. Enjoying my life more. From sodas to fast food, to health programs and alcohol, to cars and clothing, everything is sold based on its life-improvement-factor. This all adds up to a world full of people focused on only themselves.
What if we as Christ followers did our best to live with radical love? Radical love looks something like this:
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8)
That is radical love.
Could you imagine what our world would look like if just one out of every ten Christ followers lived in this way? One out of every 100?
I encourage you to think about ways that you can love people radically.
