It was Argentinian doctor and pop-revolution icon Che Guevara who said, as he was leaving Cuba for Africa, "Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love."
But lovers are hard to come by. And I think that's what our world is desperately in need of - lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about. We are trying to raise up an army not simply of street activists but of lovers - a community of people who have fallen desperately in love with God and with suffering people, and who allow those relationships to disturb and transform them.
Source: The Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne
4 comments:
I'm reading this for the second time--it begged to be read even yet again--with tears in my eyes.
It's been a frustrating week. One where the folks I work with have majored on lazy and acting entitled, and all the ugly just seems to be bubbling to the top. Normally, I handle it ok, but this week I'm hormonally challenged and we're completely moving an entire work program from one side of town to the other.
I'm working to love, praying to love, but quite honestly feel I've gone to a dry well.
And I tell you this why? Because in the telling I've turned my prayers around and feel more peace than I have all week
...and what you wrote here helped to make that happen...Thank you.
Daisy,
I know you're doing the work and know the faces and hearts of those you are working with - this means so much to me to know that I was able to encourage you today.
I have been so disturbed lately. I am beginning to know the faces in our community and the need is just so vast. I feel so small and so incompetent. And I so don't want to get jaded. I can't seem to find the balance of loving and not having your soul ripped out from under you by the desperate level of need. How do you do it?
:)
I do it because I can't not.
Way back when I was a little girl, God planted a seed while I was watching Rudolph the Rednosed Reigndeer. He peeled off tiny layers of fear and separation as I watched and ached for the toys on the Island of Misfit Toys. No lie. My heart has always been for the outcast. I haven't always leaned into that calling, but my journey landed me there once again and now...I can't not.
Well, I'm going to write old Shane Claiborne a letter and tell him to post a warning on the front of Irresistible Revolution for those who actually attempt to do what it says!
(I say that only half tongue in cheek!)
Post a Comment