“He (God) plucks the world out of our heart, loosening the chains of attachment.  And then He hurls the world into our heart, where we and He together carry it in infinitely tender love.”
-Thomas Kelly, Testament of Devotion

This is one of the many paradoxes of the Christian faith, and my personal struggle.  We are to be in the world and yet not of the world.  We are to live and love differently as disciples of Christ, and yet not be detached and isolated from the world in which we live.   And yet, we all struggle with the balancing act of understanding and engaging in the Kingdom of heaven and the Kingdom of earth simultaneously.  

We are lured in the direction of consumerism and the American dream, but Jesus spoke of living simply, selling our goods and giving them to the poor, turning our tools of destruction into tools of harvesting, and fighting oppression and injustice through peace, love, and creativity.  

We are called to be extremists of Christ’s love, not extremist protectors of our ideologies and comfortable way of life. 

Warning:  This will not be easy. 
Side effects may include the following:  headache, doubt, frustration, questioning our current way of living, interaction with those whom we are not comfortable,  sacrifice, utter discontent with living anything less than as a radical Christian following in Jesus’ footsteps.