The book I am reading right now constantly uses the phrase “ordinary radical”. God is calling us to be these “ordinary radicals”. The first time I read it, it sounded really cool. But as it began to be used more and more often, I began to wonder. Ordinary radical? What the heck does that mean?

“Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”" – Matthew 22: 37-39

Love. That’s all it really comes down to. But we don’t really know what love is.

Ordinary radical. God is calling us to be crazy, to do something ridiculous. One time Jesus told a rich guy to go sell all of his stuff [Mark 10: 17-31] We look at that story and think “Yeah, well he wasn’t serious about that. That is just a little too crazy. Good one, Jesus.” But in all reality, there is nothing crazy about that at all. In fact, we are the ones being crazy. We are constantly receiving God’s love, but we aren’t doing anything with it. Now that is ridiculous.

Twenty-first century christianity has become too safe. You don’t need to do any of this “radical” stuff, all you have to do is love Jesus. But what is the love if you aren’t willing to go all out? He calls us to be “ordinary radicals”. Crazy for Him, doing all sorts of things with His love.