Secure Enough to go "Full Stretch"

Yesterday i had a great conversation with members of the "Loaves & Fishes" Community Group. They've been studying & enjoying John Piper's book, Desiring God. They mentioned the radical nature of the call to follow Jesus.... and how in your face Piper is about materialism, laziness, pride, gluttony, etc. I said, "The other guy who taught your group, JI Packer, preaches the same gospel... only in an understated British kind of way." I couldn't give an example off hand... until now!!!!

Today when looking online for Packer's chapter in Knowing God called "God Incarnate"... i came across this quote
“We are unlike the Christians of New Testament times. Our approach to life is conventional and static; theirs was not. The thought of ‘safety first’ was not a drag on their enterprise as it is on ours. By being exuberant, unconventional and uninhibited in living by the gospel they turned their world upside down, but you could not accuse us twentieth-century Christians of doing anything like that. Why are we so different? Why, compared with them, do we appear as no more than halfway Christians? Whence comes the nervous, dithery, take-no-risks mood that mars so much of our discipleship? Why are we not free enough from fear and anxiety to allow ourselves to go full stretch in following Christ?"

Praying that this Advent Jesus will secure Christ Community (corporately & individually) to go full stretch.