Living in Extreme Days
The most bittersweet time of year is upon us—the end of long warm days and beginning of crisp dark mornings. What better time of year than autumn to remind us of the sad theological concept called, “the fall.” And what better way to remind us of our sin condition than the ubiquitous 8”x14” campaign postcards we receive in the mail every two Septembers. Judging from election season rhetoric, we are living in extreme days, which calls for an extreme faith.
A small collection of mail at the Evans house
Two years ago on this blog, I quipped about political “mudslinging”, and unsurprisingly, the vitriol expressed in this year’s campaign ads has not subsided. I received two ads last week describing each’s opponent as “extreme”. I had to chuckle because, not only are these barbs ridiculous, but extreme was one of my favorite words as a teenager. The ‘90’s called; they want their vocabulary back!
If you came of age in the 1980s and early 1990s like me, you will remember almost every product was marketed in dayglo green or pink highlighting its “extreme” qualities. Mostly the E was removed to highlight my generation’s favorite letter, X. So “X-treme” were chips, soda, and portable CD-players that I had no choice but to spend my allowance on them.
In addition to hyperbolic consumerism, I was also exposed to extreme faith. DC Talk sang about “Jesus Freaks” who were martyred for their faith, and Jesus called us to nothing less. My youth group and I were encouraged to trash our secular CDs and wear rings that signified our commitment to extreme purity (I did both and I kind of wish I kept that Garth Brooks album).
Despite my childhood experience with flashy marketing and manipulative ministry, I am still in favor of living an extreme life for Jesus. So is my new friend, Ronnie Sylvester. He and his family have devoted their lives to teaching the gospel to unreached people groups in Thailand. Inspired by Francis Chan’s Crazy Love and heroes of the faith like Hudson Taylor and Lottie Moon, Ronnie understands Jesus’s call to discipleship as nothing less than extreme.
To live an extreme faith, one must realize at least two things: we are extreme sinners, but Jesus is even greater. Martin Luther, an early Gen-Xer, captured this well in his famous letter to fellow reformer Philip Melanchthon:
If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (or “sin boldly”), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.
Thankfully, I learned at a young age that I was not an imaginary sinner. I was and am the real deal, a dayglo green sinner, who could describe himself the same way as the apostle Paul in 1 Tim 1:15, “the worst!” Even worse than either candidate for Oregon’s 5th congressional district!
Yet, I wake up each morning with extreme gratitude for the saving work of Jesus Christ. I long for a life that is characterized by radical love, forgiveness, and good works. Mediocrity and lukewarmness leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I believe that’s a character trait of God, too.
Hyperbole can get wearisome and exaggeration is deceitful. Campaign postcards’ insults are laughably overstated, but we do live in an extreme world during extreme times. Jesus went to the ultimate extreme by dying on the cross for no less than the worst sinners like you and me.
Let this bittersweet season remind us of that truth. An incredible, amazing God, who loved the world with such greatness that he sent his only son into a fallen world and offers an incomprehensibly wonderful salvation from the fires of hell into an eternal life with him. This is “x”-tremely good news.
