Average-Everyday-Ordinary Radical

I don’t exactly fit the mold of an anarchist or revolutionary. At least the picture I have in my own mind of a Christian radical: long hair, possibly dreds (because seriously, if you are truly bringing about the neo-Kingdom, do you have time to wash your hair), long whiskers, dirty clothes because doing wash uses precious water that somebody else should be using, no meat because that hurts one of God’s creatures, and a special body odor because the parent company of deodorant manufacturers tests their product on cute furry bunny rabbits.

I have always had this picture in my mind of what a revolutionary should look like, someone who rejects mainstream culture and attempts to live closer to God’s economy, closer to what Jesus may have looked like, and I don’t fit that description. I’m not exactly sure what that might look like, and seriously, the above description is a joke, but I just didn’t think I was going to come across people living this life out in a radical fashion who looked much like me, who loved watching such a violent sport like football (or MMA), or coached a “blood-sport” such as wrestling.

On this journey I might meet a few new friends who would much rather invite a couple homeless guys to a college football game, buy some free-trade coffee to share and drive the veggie-bus to tailgate, before they would protest the game for being too violent, or condemn all of the people who drove to the game because they are slaves to the oil companies. It actually gives me hope that God doesn’t look at me in the same way I look at myself. It doesn’t really matter what I protest, if I’m loving God and loving other people, God doesn’t care what I look like, or what my “views” are.

What I have come to realize is that many who are chasing God in this way, people we have met in a few of the cities we have travel to, are normal everyday people who when Jesus came knocking they decided to answer and then saw no other way than to live an authentic and real existence learning to love God and others around them. Some are professionals, others are professional protesters. Some find each and every rally so they can express their desire for change, while others want to develop community and friendship by inviting me to an MMA pay-per-view. I’m realizing that maybe I fit in with your average-everyday-ordinary radical.