I've come to disrupt and confront!

Luke 12:49-53

49 Jesus said to his disciples, "I've come to start a fire on this earth -- how I wish it were blazing right now! 50 I've come to change everything, turn everything rightside up-- how I long for it to be finished! 51 Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I've come to disrupt and confront! 52 From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be three against two, and two against three; 53 Father against son, and son against father; Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; Mother- in- law against bride, and bride against mother- in- law."

Food for Thought:

Jesus knew all about his life; he knew what would happen, when it would happen, how it would happen, and why it would happen. "I have," he said, "a terrible experience through which I must pass; and life is full of tension until I pass through it and emerge triumphantly from it." The cross was ever before his eyes; his passion and death was always before his eyes.

We too, have to go through hardships before getting the results we need; things normally get worse before they get getter. If your life is going to get better, you'll have to make some sacrifices; you will have to go through hardships. There's simply no way to the top that does not include climbing. 

That's why we don't concentrate on hardships, but on the good results. Remember this, obstacles are what we see whenever we take our eyes off the goal. If you're afraid of hardships and terrible experiences, you'll never accomplish great things.  You can improve your life, if you too drink the cup like Jesus.

One of the terrible experience to go through will inevitably be your dear ones, some of whom may object to your aspirations; sometimes our people are the greatest obstacle in the realization of our dreams. You will have to decide whether you love more your dear ones or Christ; whether you love more comfort or hardships, whether you follow Christ through a Good Friday or follow Judas Iscariot who wanted easy money without a struggle; he eventually killed himself.

Following Christ's (hard) way is a choice we have to make. This choice many times implies division, estrangement and opposition, sometimes even from our dearest people. He says, Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I've come to disrupt and confront! We must ready ourselves for rough ride.

Like Jesus, we sometimes have to take social risks and do things that others might disapprove of. That is not easy. Society frowns on disagreeableness. As human beings we are hardwired to seek the approval of those around us. Yet a radical and transformative thought goes nowhere without the willingness to challenge convention. “If you have a new idea, and it’s disruptive and you’re agreeable, then what are you going to do with that?” says Peterson. “If you worry about hurting people’s feelings and disturbing the social structure, you’re not going to put your ideas forward.”

As the playwright George Bernard Shaw once put it: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”