"This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore." Rachel Corrie
What makes a Marine? I think it is debatable, but for me the answer is heart. It is a certain type of heart that make a Marine. Some are born with it. Some strive with their entire being to achieve it. But striving, wanting, imagining, wishing, praying, talking... do not make a Marine. Achieving/having the HEART of a Marine makes a Marine.
It is a certain type of heart/spirit/Soul that makes one a disciple of Jesus. Off hand I don't think of anything that better captures that heart/Spirit/Soul than Rachel's words above. I don't think one is Christian if / when their heart is anything less than that.; not in this world of almost total misery and death. Were not those same words everpresent in Jesus breast? "There is no greater love than to lay down your life...." "Love as I have loved...." "The Good Shepherd (Christian) lays down his life for his sheep...."
We are not Living (we are not a Disciple) if we spend minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years/decades living divorceded/self-anesthetizeded/AMPUTATED from the agony of this world - Darfur, Manhattan, Congo, New Orleans, Hatai.... And if we are not amputated from, WE ARE SERVING THE NEED, "the least of these my family...."
Living = Christian. One body. ONE body, no amputation, no anesthesia.