On a recent Sunday, our church service concluded with a video clip of Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Live Out Loud”.  Singable song, watchable video, honorable message.  The video opens with Steven tooling down the road in an old VW van, windows open, hair blowing, all his hip friends singing along.  The image struck me in an unexpected way.  Something akin to being doused with cold water.  Somewhere deep inside I could hear myself shouting, “I get it!  No wonder we feel like failures!”  I know…you’re scratching your head, thinking, “Say..wha….huh?!?

Live life to the extreme!  Dare to be different!  Live out loud!  As Christians, we know that living should reflect our new abundant life.  But consider the images that often accompany the call to live a radical life – wild-haired girls and guys driving funky old cars to equally funky locations, wearing clothes they’ve hand sewn from fabric made of recycled milk cartons.  You get the picture.  So what about the mom who shuttles her kids through life in a minivan?  How does she (or any other “ordinary” creature) become a radical?  We convince ourselves that our everyday life prevents us from living a revolutionary life.  We are ashamed.  “We’ve failed!”, we whisper (and we believe it).

As a certain self-described “lazy girl” noted, we want to make a difference while our families just want us to make dinner.  But what if making dinner DID make a difference?  Sharing food (whether a perfectly poached filet o’something or a PB&J), the entire family around one table, telling stories, playing games.  What was once commonplace is suddenly groundbreaking.  The mom who makes this happen IS making a difference.  As George Bailey learned, each life touches so many others.  The kids picking at their vegetables tonight will be ruling the world tomorrow.  The lessons learned around the table will impact the future in ways we cannot yet imagine.

Don’t get me wrong, we most definitely need to shop responsibly, vote intelligently and give generously.  But what if radical living meant a mom deciding to forego the purchase of an SUV with more cupholders, having one or two handbags rather than a closet full, trading in her cash-generating job to stay home with her children?  I know that is absolutely impossible for many women, but anyone who could do it might just revolutionize her family.  How about when the kids are older and mom has a little more time on her hands, what if she joined a local book club…where the women are reading a (gasp!) non-Christian book?  What if she started that book club?  Or a cooking club?  Or a chick flick club?  Did you ever wonder whether Jesus handed out study guides and pencils before eating dinner with the tax collectors and prostitutes? 

Charity is chic right now, celebrities and citizens in the spotlight for doing good.  Praise God!  We are beginning to realize how much we need one another.  But “making a difference” often occurs in a million little acts, unseen by the outside world, performed by women behind the wheel of the family sedan, wearing jeans they found on the clearance rack at Target, singing along with Steven Curtis Chapman…or Rob Thomas, your choice.