In defense of fanatics

There is an old story about a man being carted off by ambulance after having inexplicably opened the door of his moving vehicle and stepped out. When asked by the EMT en route to the hospital why he had done such a thing, the rattled motorist replied, "Another car passed me going so fast that I though I was stopped."

I was on the phone the other night with an old acquaintance, and by the time we hung up, I realized that I have only been fooling around with Christianity all this time, while she's in a serious relationship with Jesus Christ. I perceived that Gina has not one iota of embarrassment about the gospel (Mark 8:38). She never joins in with urbane jesting, or other subtle capitulations to curry the approval of the world by downplaying her love for Jesus. Quietly, unsensationally, she has endured being "outside the camp," the object of sophisticated scoffing and mocking (Hebrews 13:13), even in her immediate family.

But as Paul the Apostle said: "Consider the outcome of their way of life" (Hebrews 13:7). Indeed. Her 19-year-old son, who scoffed at her piety for years, and who now finds himself in prison, has come to faith---a serious, hot faith, like his mom's, and not a halfway, socially respectable faith. And he now praises his mom. And I dare say that the Lord himself praises her (John 5:44).

We hear a lot of talk these days about the danger of fanaticism, by which is sometimes meant people who are completely serious and consistent in their love for Christ. It's funny; I see the situation entirely differently. It's the respectably religious folks who do us no good. The Church need not worry about fanatics. There are precious few of them, for one thing. And I find that all they can do is lift you up higher toward Christ.

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