Radical

  David Platt's Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream had been in the pile on the bedroom floor for a while.  That's the "I want to read this more than the other books I have that I haven't read yet" pile.  I have another pile in my office of books I have that I don't want to read as badly but still hope I get around to soon.  The pile on the bedroom floor is pushing twenty books, so I feel a bit of pressure to read some of those before Rachel figures out that piles of books only get bigger, not smaller, and threatens to kick out me or the books.  Radical had an advantage because it was thinner than the others.

  I'd be careful reading Radical--don't read it if you're looking for a comfort read, if you're looking for something that won't loom over every thought for the time you're reading it, if you're looking for something to read and then put away.  Radical is hard to read, and it challenges much of what I have grown up thinking--Platt challenges our idolatry of the American dream, and he challenges the American church for coddling Christians and not raising up disciples.  He points us back to the Gospels, then points us out into the world, just as Christ did.  It's a pretty simple book.

  But it's a tough, tough read.  If you want your faith and view to be challenged, then read this book.  If you want to question whether you're living as a disciple or not, read this book.  If you're ready to do some serious soul-searching, read this book.  But only read it if you're going to take Platt seriously.  This book isn't perfect, but it's a great challenge to the comfort zone in which the typical American Christian church spends much of its time.  I'm trying to figure out how to put a book group together with this book--I think it's one that the church would benefit from having read widely.  There are plenty of places to engage with this book, and I think there is a real opportunity here for renewal, for examination, for a recognition of our shortcomings.

  But it's a difficult journey.  But discipleship is difficult, and we need to be willing to be humble and honest with ourselves if we want to grow in faith.