"Don't Blindly Follow the Revolution"

Inspired by Nicole
Inspired by Shane Claiborne


The idea of "blindly following a revolution" was presented to me at my book study the other day. We are reading BECOMING THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. The book is amazing and has shown me some really cool thing about prayer (I highly recommend). But we were talking about the book the other night and Nicole Edwards, who is a dear friend and married to a dear friend, brought up the idea that we need to be careful to have reasons for all that we do. We need to not just do something because it is the newest thing. I think this is ESPECIALLY true with the college age, rebellious minded, tradition hating people such as myself. We need to be careful to not see a movement that it cutting edge and against the norm and think "hey, I should think the way they do because they are different and different is cool!".
I have read three books by Shane Claiborne and all of them have shown a "different" way of thinking besides what I was raised to believe. I love these books and the ideas that they present and I must say that I buy into them 100% But I had never stopped to think, "do I like this because it is "new" and "weird" or do I like it because I honestly believe that what this man is writing is the truth?" And its the same with everything we approach in life, we need to ask ourselves am I in this because its edgy and my friends are into it? or is this REALLY for me, REALLY what I believe and want out of life?
Its like when I was little, my family believed in and supported anything with "republican approval" so I did too. As I grew older and began to form some of my own independent thoughts, I began to run away from those "conservative" ideas and values just as fast as my feet would go! But since this idea was brought to me by Nicole, I have begun to rethink my stands on a lot of different issues, asking myself "can I back up what I think? really put my money where my mouth is? or is this all just because I wanted to rebel against my mom and dad when I was 16 17 and 18 yeas old and all my friends believed that way at the time?"
And to be honest, I am able to look at myself and say I am where I am because I honestly think this way and I am able to back up what I think. But I am glad that I have started to take this approach when looking at my beliefs, just makes you that much more grounded in your ideals.