I recently finished reading Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream. My life was seriously impacted by this book. I’m still processing my thoughts on this, and probably won’t articulate them as clearly as I need to in this post, but I’m going to give it my best shot.

I may repost this at a later date reflecting the continued progression of my thinking on this.

To state it simply, Radical changed my life. David Platt has written a simple, yet profound, treatise of how we approach Christianity in American culture today.

We have a faith built largely upon convenience. Our faith doesn’t cost us a lot, like it does for millions of people around the world. And, as a result, we have become complacent in our Christianity. We sit back and receive, receive, receive, instead of giving of ourselves for the sake of Christ.

Platt addresses this idea in many different areas throughout Radical. He starts off describing what radical abandonment to Jesus really means. Are we willing to change for Jesus? Or are we too comfortable with the status quo?

You and I can choose to continue with business as usual in the Christian life and in the church as a whole, enjoying success based on the standards defined by the culture around us. Or we can take an honest look at the Jesus of the Bible and dare to ask what the consequences might be if we really believed him and really obeyed him.

If Jesus is who he said he was, and if his promises are as rewarding as the Bible claims they are, then we may discover that satisfaction in our lives and success in the church are not found in what culture deems important but in radical abandonment to Jesus.

But are we willing to go that far? Our comfort may prohibit us…

We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in his Word, we might discover that he evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give him.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing for that to be descriptive of me. I want to give Jesus everything I have. Everything I am. Everything I will be. But the cost is high. The question I have to ask myself is am I willing to pay that price?

The answer is… Yes. I will do what it takes to life a life of radical abandonment to the Savior of my soul. But just what does that look like?

Platt takes the majority of his book and answers that very question. What does a life of radical abandon look like? What are the qualities that need to be developed in that life?

In 1931, James Truslow Adams coined and defined the phrase, “the American dream.” He spoke of it as:

A dream…in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are.

This sounds grand and lofty, and hard work and ambition are positive aspects of the Christian life. But this “dream” is deceitful: it leads us to believe that our best asset is our own ability. This is exactly opposite of the Gospel. Our best asset isn’t our ability; it’s Christ’s ability and accomplishment at the cross.

You see, if we accomplish what we perceive to be under our own power, we will always attribute that accomplishment to our own ability. Never to God’s power at work in and around us. The “American dream” simply doesn’t line up with Scripture.

So how do we take steps to live our lives of abandonment in line with the Word instead of our own achievements?

Platt suggests a number of areas that we can concentrate on. But before he does that, he has to explain just why this is God’s purpose for us. He calls this “the great why of God.”

God’s purpose for us is twofold. First, we are created by God to enjoy his grace. We are his masterpiece. We are the pinnacle of his creation. He created us to join him in eternity, through salvation by the Son.

The second aspect of God’s purpose for us is to take that grace and extend it to the nations. We are called to extend his glory to the rest of humanity.

The problem with this concept in America is this: we have forgotten the second part of the purpose. We have grasped the idea of enjoying his grace. We have lost the concept of extending his glory to the nations.

This is nowhere more evident than in the state of American “church-hopping.” What do people look for when they are trying to find a church? A place that is good for me. A place where I grow, or my kids can grow. We’ve simplified the definition of Christianity to “God loves me.”

But this isn’t biblical. The message of Christianity is not simply “God loves me.” The message of biblical Christianity is

God loves me so that I might make him – his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness – known among all nations.

We have confused ourselves into thinking that the privileges we enjoy as Christians in America are our obligations to the Lord and the world. This just isn’t so.

So, how can we regain a knowledge of his two-fold purpose for the Body of Christ?

First, by joining together in meaningful community. Jesus has commanded us to make disciples. These disciples are God’s plan to impact the entire world. And we have to work together as a community, as a family, in order to accomplish this. Making disciples is an agent of change simply from the point of view that true discipleship is contagious. When the world sees true change in a believer’s life, they take notice. That life stands out. And it spreads from there. Christians produce more Christians. And then Christians do life together, in community.

Second, we accomplish God’s purpose completely when we correctly view wealth and our attitude toward the poor. Platt calls this the great “blind spot” in twenty-first century Christianity in America.

If our lives do not reflect radical compassion for the poor, there is reason to question just how effective we will be in declaring the glory of Christ to the ends of the earth. More pointedly, if our lives do not reflect radical compassion to the poor, there is reason to wonder if Christ is really in us at all.

When God extends an expectation for us to be generous in our giving, he does so with the understanding the he is a generous giver. And this is really the core issue underneath this whole idea. Do we really trust that God is able and willing to take care of our own needs enough to reach out to meet the needs of others?

Here’s a radical idea:

Why not begin operating under the idea that God has given us excess, not so that we could have more, but so we could give more?

I believe that there is a reason that God has planted the majority of the world’s wealth in the United States of America. I believe that it is so that we can do the majority of the work and funding to reach the nations with the message of Christ. And I believe that we are sadly neglecting this.

Now we’re getting radical…. Or maybe we’re just getting biblical.

The war against materialism is a constant battle to resist the temptation to have more. More luxuries, more stuff, more conveniences, more comforts. It’s time we changed our standard of living. It’s time we changed our standard of giving.

The third way we can realize God’s purposes in our lives is to realize that there is no plan B.

As American Christians, we celebrate the idea that “all men are created equal.” This statement from our Declaration of Independence is grounded in the biblical teaching that every person in the world has been formed in the image of God and therefore has intrinsic worth. It’s a beautiful idea.

Subtly, however, this equality of persons shifts into an equality of ideas. Just as every person is equally valued, so every idea is equally valid. Applied to faith, this means that in a world where different people have different religious views, all such views should be treated as fundamentally equal.

In this system of thinking, faith is a matter of taste, not of truth. The cardinal sin, therefore, is to claim that one person’s belief is true while another person’s belief is false. The honorable route is to rest quietly in what you believe and resist the urge to share your beliefs with someone else.

The fault in this thinking is this. If we do not share with the people around us and around the world that Jesus is the Way (John 14:6), then who will? God does not have a plan B for world evangelism. We are his plan. His desire is to use us to communicate this urgent truth to people who are dying without him.

In fact, if you look through the book of Acts, there is no example of God advancing the gospel without using a human agent.

We are God’s plan. There is no plan B.

And as a result, there is no time to waste. The evangelization of the world is our responsibility. We should get busy before more and more die without having any opportunity to know the saving message of Jesus.

This is a cause worth living for. It is a cause worth dying for. It is a cause worthy of moving urgently on.

There is risk in living radically. And there is also reward.

The key is realizing – and believing – that this world is not our home. If you and I hope to ever free our lives from worldly desires, worldly thinking, worldly pleasures, worldly dreams, worldly ideals, worldly values, worldly ambitions, and worldly acclaim, then we must focus our lives on another world.

How true.

If your life or my life is going to count on earth, we must start by concentrating on heaven. For then, and only then, will you and I be free to take radical risk, knowing that what awaits us is radical reward.

I don’t know about you, but my life is going to different from here on out. I am making some changes personally, and within my family. My life, and my family life, is gong to be more radical.

Here are some of the changes we are going to make:

• We are going to start learning about the nations. We are going to pray for the nations daily, specifically. A resource that will help us do this is Operation World).
• We are going to make sure God’s Word has the ability to transform us. In order to do that, we are going to make sure that we are exposed to God’s Word daily. Family devotions will become more of a priority. Individual time in the Word will be taught and encouraged to our kids, and exemplified as a priority in my life.
• We are going to take God at his word concerning generosity. We are going to give, not out of our overflow, or whatever we can spare. We are going to work to the point where we are giving what it takes. And we are going to give until it hurts, and beyond. We are going to change our standard of giving.
• We are going to spend our time serving others. This will start with the opportunity I have to lead teens on mission trips. But I plan to also include a trip outside of my youth ministry responsibilities. Our hearts are broken by the magnitude of human trafficking, especially in places like Cambodia. Next fall, if God is willing, I plan to join Rapha House on a trip to Cambodia. And as our daughters grow old enough to join us in the endeavor of foreign missions, they will join me on trips such as this. Eventually, our goal is to take family mission trips to locations around the US and outside our borders to serve others and bring the gospel to the nations.
• And finally, we will commit to deepening our relationships and involvement within our own personal faith community, Mountain View Christian Church. As staff, I am already intricately and intimately involved here. But we will be searching for ways to deepen our involvement, both personally and as a family. The global purpose of Christ was never intended to be completed by individuals. God’s plan involves community to be effective.

That’s the Randleman plan for living a life of radical abandonment for Jesus.

What about you? I suggest you read David Platt’s Radical. And then let me know how your life has changed.

We can work together to impact the world.

I highly recommend that you read Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream. You can purchase it at Amazon.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”