The Irresistible Revolution

I just finished reading this book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an ordinary radical, by Shane Claiborne. It was a very interesting and challenging book. I would recommend it to everyone. As with any book, there are plenty of things that I do not agree with in the book, but overall I think that it stretched me in my faith and has caused me to know more about the heart of God. We all grow up with one point of view usually, which means that there are thousands of "philosophies of lives" out there and who are we to think that ours is the one that everyone needs to have. So seeing other people's radical lives is good to see and at times, mimic. Or at least add to what you believe or how you believe. This book taught me to love more, give more, and to need less. I have had a tendency to blame people for where they are at financially, which is probably not a good thing to do. I need to be careful about how I judge others. I am sure that over 90% (probably 99%) of the world grew up in a situation financially less comfortable than I did. I have been so blessed. People have lived on so much less that I have lived on and so it would not hurt me too bad to have less clothes, food, etc... Shane talks about the possibility of knocking out poverty in the world if we just shared our resources more. And he is right. And I have not played my part in that and so I am going to start to do so more.
Shane is also a war protester. I have never really thought any different about war than that we need it. We were attacked and now we are defending ourselves. Shane did bring new information to the table though for me as he went over there and visited. He talks about showing love rather than hate as a means to end war. I am still struggling with this in my mind as I know that it would be ideal, but is it reality? Not sure. Either way, I do not like conflict and so a war-less world would be great. I think that we would all agree on that. It is just a matter of it being possible. I just see so much effects from sin in the world to see a world that would not have someone who would want to be Napoleon or Hitler, who would just want to conquer the world. And how would you stop those personalities without war? Not sure.
I need to love more as well. It is tough living in Brazil with so much poverty around me. I really do not want to give out money that much as I am not sure what it will be used for. I would rather give out food and clothes. I am excited about being able to do this more and am wondering what my clothes drawer will look like in a few months.