I recently finished reading “The Irresistible Revolution� by Shane Claiborne. There are a lot of great things in his book, but one that really stood out to me this month was his section about Christianity being dangerous. We were told from day one that the city we were in was dangerous. There are a lot of gangs around (most consist of children as young as 12) that control the vehicles that are allowed to travel into the community and are known to rob and kill people for money (especially white people). We were told to be inside the compound by dark and to always travel with at least 3 people in our groups. It was not uncommon to see bullet holes in the windows of the comvy and buses that we rode in and to hear gunshots ring out during the night. But we aren’t called to safety. I didn’t go on the race expecting to be safe at all times.
Shane quotes his mom in his book saying “I have come to see that we Christians are not called to safety, but we are promised that God will be with us when we are in danger, and there is no better place to be than in the hands of God.� In Matthew 10:28 it says that we should not fear the things that can destroy the body, but the things that can destroy the soul. Shane talks about how much more subtle things, such as safety and comfort are the things that can eat away at our souls. I came on the race to get out of comfortable; to be in unsafe places; to get away from normal; because this is where God is alive!
