A thorn among lilies...without restrain.

This past weekend my team and I attended a speaking engagement around the Galleria area of Houston. First off the Galleria is the perfect example of American consumerism and therefore as my teammates and I drove through on our way to the event we were amazed by the amount of money that goes into some things and the lack of money that goes into others.
At the conference we were blessed to hear from a Franciscan Monk of the third order. His name was Chris Webb and he is president of the organization named Renevare, he is subsequently the subject of this blog.
Chris is a practicing Franciscan Monk (weird robe and all) he spoke this past weekend on what else but St. Francis. Chris' ideas were not entirely new to my teammates and I but to the rest of the crowd it was breathtakingly extreme and new.
While there were many things I pulled from our time there the one thing I would like to talk about is the mission question that Chris proposed.

"What does it mean for me to follow Christ without reserve?"

Chris told a story of a conversation he had during his first thoughts of joining the Franciscan lifestyle. He was talking to a friend in a frenzy saying how it sounded crazy to just give everything away he was saying how you can't just give everything away and his friend simply said "Why Not?"...

So Chris' question for people is now Do you have anything better to do?
What is holding all of us back? What is keeping us from following Christ? Why is there reservation in our walk with him?

Simply put there should not be reservation and if there is we should be doing everything we can to rid our selves of reservation.

Look at your walk. If there is reservation ( and we all have them some are obvious some are not) then seek God's wisdom to find the ways to rid your self of any reservation.

I am calling this a thorn among lilies because what we are called to do is not comfortable it is not the normal lifestyle in our society If you follow it you will be a thorn in the side of those who desire to be comfortable and you will stick out.

"Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer." Dorothy Day

We are called to live a life of unconditional love. A love that is unending, a blind love, and a love that has nothing holding it back.

Love God, Love People nothing else matters!


Love
Ike