Extremes

I just finished cutting my grass. After all the temperature is in the 70s, why not? I know cutting grass the first days of March, when all that gets mowed are clover and leaves,  may make me an extremist in the lawn department but that’s okay.

According to the Weather Channel, the temperature tomorrow morning will be forty degrees cooler than it will be when we go to bed. Okay so I go to bed pretty early, but you get the the point…extreme.

I saw some extremes on line yesterday as the left and right commented on Israel’s Prime Minister’s speech to  Congress. Talk about  your differences of opinion. Without going into specifics I think both sides went to extremes to express their views. Neither Israel’s Prime Minister nor America’s President is quite the low life scum portrayed on line. If that last sentence offended you, you really need to read the rest. I can assure you that no one switched sides as a result of the speech or the online debate. No one was converted or convinced.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against extremists. Jesus was an extremist. It was His way or the highway. I intend to stay off the highway. I believe we should be 100%, totally committed to our beliefs, especially those with eternal significance. The problem comes in the execution. Take executions for example. ISIS has been executing Christians just for being Christians. I think we can all agree that’s extreme.  Those Christians are willing to die rather than deny Christ. Isn’t that also extreme. I hope I can be that extreme when the time comes (Notice it’s “when” not “if.”) The “true believers” on both sides are fighting for the support of the vast majority of folks, the moderates, the non-extremists, the non-passionate, those without real convictions, the boring. Whom do you think is getting the most sympathy? Who is causing more to consider joining a side, the executors or the executed? Now some cowards may be leaning to the executioners, but who needs cowards in an extreme movement? We don’t need those willing to kill; we need those willing to die.

Jesus is the model extremist. He spoke the truth forcefully and fiercely, but in love. More importantly, he acted out the truth in love. He didn’t back down from His enemies, but He also prayed for them, even when they were killing him, even with his dying breath. He spoke to change hearts, not to win debates.

There’s danger in extremism. In our passion, we can cross the line from truth to exaggeration, to lies. In our zeal, we can move from loving debate to annoyance, to red-faced, hate-filled anger. Debate and argument isn’t where it’s at anyway. Maybe we should do a little less talking and a lot more acting. What a person says demonstrates what he wants to be. What he does demonstrates who he is.

How about we be extreme examples of Jesus?