Being Extreme

Perhaps I need to avoid books that highlight extreme expressions of faith because after reading them I always want to copy. I just finished Under the Overpass, a story about a Westmont student who chose to live on the streets for a period of time because he needed to find out if his faith was real apart from the comforts he was accustomed to. The book is not particularly well written or full of profound insights, but I appreciated his message to the reader. He was not recommeding that other Christians follow him to the streets, but that we take whatever risk God is calling us to walk into at this moment in our lives, without worrying about what we will eat, where we will sleep etc. For some reason my idea of risking always involves physical sacrifice. Right now I am reading a book on Mother Teresa, and I am slightly obsessed with living among the poor in a third world country. Maybe it is a blessing that I am married and cannot, without significant discussion and consensus, jump on a plane to Calcutta tomorrow. Maybe I need more examples of what risk can look like, or maybe this sacrificing physical comforts is a risk I always return to for a reason. In any case I want to live around the radicals at some point soon. I am open to having my definition of radical revised.