For Lent I am reading books that challenge who I am. It is an interesting prospect since in my life right now I am challenged in what I am doing. Am I satisfied with the daily grind at Macys. I think not, but in many ways it is pulling me away from what I am called to. It is during this season that I am working on my call in this chaotic world. With that I am reading a book called The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. It is an great book so far. Mcmanus is challenging each of us to live a life that is not status quo. He is writing that the Christianity that we subscribe to is one that is civilized when it should be barbaric. Not in the sense of clubbing people and the like, but that everything should not be nice and neat. That sometimes its dirty and uncomfortable.
Today I was reading about what it is to be an adopter or a mushroom eater. Instead of adopting others ideas, we are to be the risk takers. McManus describes that someone had to be the risk taker that first discovered mushrooms were edible. Without the one that first tried mushrooms we did not have portobellos. Without someone blazing the trail we would be stuck in mediocrity.
McManus writes:
The barbarian call is just this simple: we are called to be mushroom eaters. A world without God cannot wait for us to choose the safe path. If we wait for someone else to take the risk, we risk that no one will ever act and that nothing will ever be accomplished. John the Baptist was a mushroom eater and it cost him his life. Jesus, too, was a mushroom eater, and He found himself nailed to a tree.
I have the desire to be a mushroom eater. How about you?
