Being Radical by Earning a Paycheck

About a week ago I read this article, and which talked about how many millennials (people of my generation) feel an overwhelming pressure to be "radical", "missional", or, as the article put it, "awesome and extraordinary...expected to tangibly make a different in the world immediately".

The author states:

Today's millennial generation is being fed the message that if they don't do something extraordinary in this life they are wasting their gifts and potential. The sad result is that many young adults feel ashamed if they "settle" into ordinary jobs, get married early and start families, live in small towns, or as 1 Thessalonians 4:11 says, "aspire to live quietly, and to mind [their] affairs, and to work with [their] hands." For too many millennials their greatest fear in this life is being an ordinary person with a non-glamorous job, living in the suburbs, and having spectacular to boast about.

In the midst of mulling over this article, I took this on-line quiz http://whoarethejoneses.org. I've taken different quizes like this in the past, which tell you how much more money you have than the rest of the world. And yep, this quiz told me that I'm richer than 95% of the world's population.

So here I am, convicted by the fact that, by the standards of the rest of this world, I (and many people of my generation) am wealthy, while also thinking about what all this "being radical" stuff. Where do these two things meet?

There are so many men and women who have been called and gifted by the Lord - truly called and gifted, not pressured - to serve in the hard and dark areas of this world. I stand in awe of these men and women who have given up comforts to fight against poverty, illiteracy, disease, corruption, despair, and violence, and bring hope and healing and the light of the Gospel to these places. But you know what? Oftentimes, these men and women are serving through organizations where they need to raise their own financial support. They can't go and do all this radical, awesome, missional work without a solid foundation of others faithfully and regularly supporting them financially. Yes, prayer support is vital as well, but let's be real: these people need money in order to go.

Maybe more people in my generation need to see the "radicalness" that comes with accepting a regular job, working hard at it, earning a decent living, getting out of debt, and living below your means in order to purposefully put oneself in a position to financially support those who are called to do the more "sexy" work.

I say this with full acknowledgement that I'm talking to myself here too, as I am continually convicted to give more.

Just some thoughts.