We are living in a time of radical changes. A never before shut-down and lock-down in March of 2020 propelled us into whole new ways of doing life. Masks, social distancing, mass vaccinations, mass lay-offs for those who refuse. Rioting in Portland and other cities, a tortuous Presidential election, unprecedented changes in cultural norms.  Hospital beds filled with desperately ill people from the Covid-19 virus and pediatric wards filled with children experiencing unexplained mental health issues. That sounds like a description of a Post- Apocalyptic movie! But it’s our new reality.

Life is not going back to the way we knew it.

For those of us who are committed to being passionate Jesus followers… and raising the next generation of passionate Jesus followers, we find ourselves standing on the edge of an abyss. 

Sink down in dismay at the impossible odds? Or take a radical jump into the unknown?

Anyone who knows me at all knows I’m no radical reformer. I wear fashions a season or two behind everyone else. I ponder too long to make quick changes. I’m finally getting into minimalism right when (so I hear) maximalism is on the rise. Call me a middle-of-the-road, don’t-rock-the-boat people-pleaser.

Yet in the early 1980’s I read a book by a man whose ideas wouldn’t leave me alone. He had the audacity to advocate for something called Home-School. As I read the book I was filled with dread. A sinking feeling that this was something I was being called by God to do for my wiggly, curious, rambunctious, bright, never-sit-still son. Me, a college-drop out. 

At the same time, I knew without a doubt that this was the best way to educate John Mark. Our local public school system was crumbling, the Christian school at our church was excellent but I knew the sit-down-be-quiet-and-learn persuasion of that era would crush my son’s enthusiastic way of being.

When I sat down with my dad- who I revered- and told him I was thinking of homeschooling, he disapproved vehemently. Normally diplomatic in the way he argued his case, this time Dad was appalled that I would even consider such a radical, unproven idea. That was the only time I ever went against my dad. 

To do what I knew was best for John Mark I had to risk. I had to become a radical. I had to endure ridicule and disapproval. Christian educational publishers wouldn’t sell teacher’s manuals to parents. California considered homeschooling truancy and were searching for the right case to take to court, virtually locking us in during school hours lest we be “caught”. Not one of my close friends at church chose to homeschool. I was alone in my idealism. 

It was the best decision I ever made!

Now I see how standing for a radical choice grew me up. No one was going to make it easy for me, and I much prefer easy. 

But most of all, it was the best decision I could have made for John Mark. He needed time to satisfy his unusual curiosity. He needed time to play outside and imagine and conquer and create. He needed to study what fascinated him, not what the course-of-study called for. He needed time to grow out of his wiggliness and into his this-one-thing-I-do drive he was made for.

Now, listen well: I do not believe homeschool is for everyone. 

Not even close. 

But I do believe that we are living in radical times that call for radical parents to radically raise radical kids who become radical teenagers and college students who radically upset the status quo of our world. 

So, this is my very lowkey, quiet call for radicalism:

It’s time to question everything we do. How we spend our money, how we spend our evenings, where we work and what we do and why. Whether our kids have phones, what they do with screens, where and how they go to school, who they spend time with, when they date, where they go to college. Even how we eat! 

Everything is up for review. 

Our world is never going back to normal. And neither can we. Instead, it’s time to sound the trumpet, to listen to the call, to support each other’s crazy ideas that might lead to brilliant solutions that enable a radical generation to grow up in our homes to do and be far more than we could have imagined.

I don’t know what that might look like for you. 

I do know it won’t look normal. I do know you’ll get push back. I do know being radical requires an enlarged capacity for loneliness. I know you’ll have to do your research because no one is going to serve up radical living on a platter for you. I know you’ll have to lean in and listen carefully to Jesus, because He’s the only one to safely follow off that cliff into radical living. And I do know it’s the only way to live that life that is truly life and raise children who do the same. 

So… what will it be?

From my quietly radical heart,

Diane