{"id":3411,"date":"2017-04-16T10:08:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T15:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=3411"},"modified":"2023-06-28T14:50:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T14:50:35","slug":"how-to-become-a-holy-troublemaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/04\/how-to-become-a-holy-troublemaker\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Holy Troublemaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While on this journey I keep thinking of those who suffer injustices in the world\u2014the brave, super Christian heroes. I was going to tell the stories of those people in far-off lands doing extraordinary things. Stories that are helpful and I love, but that make me feel a bit small and couldn\u2019t be told about me. But this is about me. And about you.<\/strong> And even in the midst of the stories, we can never forget that.
\nWe will all have heroes, but it\u2019s not ultimately about them. This is about us and our way of being. And this idea of persecution, this idea of swimming upstream, should cause us to ask a key question:
\nWho am I colluding with?<\/strong>
\nAre we colluding with the powers of our culture? Consumerism, greed, money, sex, violence, power, advertising, pushing to be first?<\/p>\n

Or are we colluding with the upside-down message of this humble, nonviolent King and his counterintuitive Kingdom message? Are we with the poor, the brokenhearted, the meek, those hungry and thirsty for justice and wholeness? Do we show mercy because we have received mercy, and are our hearts becoming pure and undivided so we\u2019re able to see God and the world in a different way, advocating for peace and mutual flourishing?
\nRabbi Joseph constantly reminds me that Jesus rooted the Sermon on the Mount in the Leviticus 19 purity codes, (it\u2019s fascinating to read Leviticus 19 and the Sermon on the Mount side by side). Leviticus 19 starts with God saying, \u201cBe holy because I . . . am holy.\u201d
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\nTo be holy means to be unique, to be different, to be set apart, and in the Beatitudes, Jesus lays out what this uniqueness looks like. Jesus shows us where God is and what he is doing and invites us to this unexpected life of imitating and following him.
\nA good friend of mine calls the people who hear this invitation and accept it \u201cagents of disruption\u201d\u2014holy troublemakers.
\nHoly troublemakers are people who are compelled to live a life worthy of a pushback\u2014a life worthy of persecution. They\u2019re the people who don\u2019t just hear the Beatitudes but who actually become the Beatitudes. They collude with this counterintuitive King and his upside-down message.
\nThey swim upstream.
\nTesting times come.
\nThey don\u2019t get picked for the A team.
\nThey are often misfits and misunderstood.
\nHoly troublemakers understand that where there\u2019s persecution, there is suffering. And when we suffer for the cause of righteousness and justice, we connect with the suffering of the greatest misfit of all time.<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

So when you hear stories about heroes of the faith, please don\u2019t go making it about \u201cthem\u201d or counting yourself out of the picture because \u201cthere\u2019s no way I can do that.\u201d It\u2019s not about the \u201csuper Christians\u201d\u2014this is about me and it\u2019s about you, right where we are at, right here and right now.<\/p>\n

So what does it actually look like for the rest of us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think we have to start by asking ourselves some hard questions:<\/p>\n