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- by Dr. Gary Downing |
XTREME- So many things today are called “Xtreme.” Xtreme sports, Xtreme deodorant, Xtreme music, Xtreme clothes... it’s the big word in marketing products and experiences that go outside the ordinary, beyond the mundane. Why the emphasis on going “crazy to the max”? What is the sudden interest in doing things and going places no one in their sensible mind would pursue? Is it the rush of adrenaline? The euphoria of feeling really alive by challenging the boundaries of death? To see just how far you can go before you reach your limits? We aren't the first people in history to feel trapped by the mundane middle. So many people have felt so pressed into a flat, dry, lifeless mold they want to break free and capture joy just by doing the unconventional, the radical, the Xtreme. Maybe that is exactly why Xtreme is in and ordinary is out. People seek to escape the boring, middle of the road, balanced approach to living. “After all,” they say, “the only thing you find in the middle of the road is yellow stripes and dead skunks!” Hundreds of years ago the wise sage who penned the Book of Ecclesiastes 7:16-18 wrote, “Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise - why destroy yourself?What I think he meant is that people will go to extremes either in striving to be good, or trying to be bad. We outdo ourselves to be super religious or we throw reason and restraint into the air and chase the wind of wickedness. Both extremes are destructive and foolish. We can either be a rigorist and lose the essence of life or become a wanton epicurean tasting “wine, women and song” and kill the very goose that laid the golden egg. It is better to hold on to authentic righteousness (i.e. right relationships) and real wisdom (i.e. reverence for God) than to go to bold but foolish extremes in either direction. As a matter of fact, real faith and wise living represent, not a middle of the road, mediocre approach to life, but a third, exciting option... a new direction. It is the choice to live life with gusto and passion and energy. It is to cast our cares to the wind and take the risk of stepping out in faith. It means we can have life in all its fullness without destroying ourselves in the process. We really live Xtreme by going all out for Jesus. He calls us to leave behind anything that would bind us and block us from being His disciples. In Luke 14:33 Jesus challenges us, “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple.”Now that's Xtreme! But it's a call to let the Holy Spirit give us a life we cannot experience on our own by relying on either our goodness or badness. It's an Xtreme confrontation to choose what we will make the core, operating principle of our life. Xtreme good, bad – or radical discipleship? What's your choice?
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| Copyright ©2002 by Rochester Covenant Church |
Last Updated September
1, 2002
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