Usually people are radicals because they have taken something good to an unhealthy extreme. The one place you can't be a radical is in your love and devotion to Jesus Christ, because he is always deserving of more than we can give. However, there are certain convictions that we love and defend to such an extreme that we misrepresent the underlying truth. When we represent a certain manner of living as the only way instead of a better way, we are becoming those who look down the nose.
Those who look down the nose are many. There are those who look down on people who wear bonnets, those who look down on people who use bio-diesel, those who look down on people who home-school their children, those who look down on those who do not home-school their children, those who look down on people with nice cars, those who look down on people who hold cardboard signs, those who look down on split homes, those who look down on those who look down on split homes, those who look down on those who raise their hands, those who look down on those who sing hymns, those who look down accents or tattoos or clothes or teeth or shoes, even those who look down their noses at noses.
You can be a level one nose looker and only despise people for their actions, or you can move up to merit badge eagle scout nose looker and actually hate the people who do the despising. Some people have even moved to the top of the list where they loathe themselves for hating the despisers.
Among the many drawbacks to looking down your nose at someone is the fact that you usually can't tell where you are going. As you focus intently on the way someone else needs to change their life, you miss out on actually living out the right choices you claim to have made. Consider Kayla, who knows what a great show The Office is, but instead spends all of her time trying to convince her friends that it is better than the books they read. She has effectually cut herself off from both worlds because she is not willing to take the time to enjoy the thing she so adamantly lobbies.
Of course we need people to defend the faith with reason and argument, but one of the greatest means of convincing someone that your position is true is to live out its reality. If Tokyo really is the greatest city in the world then move there and write a blog, but don't try to convince me all day long of something that you have not personally experienced. Furthermore, if you live in Tokyo, don't spend all your time talking about how horrible Brooklyn is. Why not rather enjoy where you are at?
Can you stand in the rain and say “I am right and I will stand here alone if need be because this truth is more important to me than even my friends?” (The color of your trim is not as important as your relation to Mrs. Maggins.) If you can, then you will probably find people standing with you because they understand that it is important. But woe to those who stand in the rain over passing whims, personal tastes, or the faults of others. If God doesn't send a little acid rain their way, they will still punish themselves by spending half a day waiting on the phone so they can explain to a supervisor how long they had to wait to get service.
Do not spend your life fighting people on the best way to live life, instead go live it and let them watch. What good is it to write forty five page thesis papers about the bridge but never cross it? Bridges, streets, cars, and ideas are tools to get us somewhere. Standing beside a bicycle and lauding its glories on the road is futility. None of your hypothetical reasonings hold any water unless they are fleshed out in real, everyday experiences. Put some meet on the bones of your ideas by putting them into action. Truth has to do more than just make sense, it also has to correspond to reality. Many people are secretly afraid of standing on the bridge they so confidently defend with reason and logic.
So do not be quick to judge judges, and try to keep your eyes one where you are going instead of where people have been. Because there is a mob of people running around holding up big signs that say 'You are wrong'. They can't see each-other's faces and they are missing out on a lot of good tanning weather.
