Rallies and radicals

I made a new friend.

She's a beautiful person doing beautiful things with her beautiful heart.

She's been wrestling the same questions that have burdened me this semester.
How do we serve God without making people into projects?
How do we maintain our humility?
How do we address conflict in ministry?
How do we incorporate prayer?
How do we know it's the voice of God?

She humbly introduced me to a ministry she started as a class assignment yet has continued throughout the entire year. She adopted a neighborhood next to campus, returning each Friday with a handful of friends to hang out and mentor the kids on the block. As we walked down the street, a dozen kids or so came scurrying over to her. She addressed them each by name. She knew them and they knew her.

I was talking to another sweet friend last night. With the rise of Kony 2012, I have done a lot of thinking about our generation - we are "movement happy". The main complaint by critics has been "Give it a week."

While our cries for social equality are noble, they are short-lived and half-hearted. We shouldn't be a generation of movements, but rather, a generation of justice. Movements imply that a bunch of us will rise up for a couple of weeks, protest, make posters, share a few viral videos, and then sit back down once the fad is over. Living out justice requires an upright posture that is unwavering.

If we're chasing after movements, then we're simply a bunch of punk kids with pent up time and energy.
We're just a some middle-upper class students in our cool new t-shirts, posing with a dark-skinned child for our Facebook profile picture, tagging all of our friends.

But this new friend I made is looking to relocate to the neighborhood she is ministering too. She prays with them and she prays for them.

I read an article today about why the world needs "boring Christians". The world needs Christians who are willing to spend their summers in Africa or move their family into the bush - yet the world also needs Christians who are willing to stay in their mundane lives, Christians who say no to leading a radical life for the sake of adventure.

The Kingdom is extravagant, but Kingdom work isn't necessarily anything special. Preparing ourselves may mean Gen Bio homework. Our work may involve scrubbing toilets or reading the newspaper. Sharing the gospel may be through a simple girl hanging out with kids on a graffiti-covered street corner.

She really isn't being radical. She isn't doing anything crazy. She's just loving.

She isn't moving to a foreign nation and wearing a skirt of fig leaves. She's walking a block away to a neighborhood that is otherwise neglected.

There's no stipend, no rallies or protests, no trendy logos. She's not looking to save the world or become the next Shane Claiborne. She's just an ordinary person with an extraordinary God.