A Tale of Two Missions

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS

A couple of my latest reads were The Very Worst Missionary by Jamie Wright and Where the Colors Blend by Stephen Copeland.

 These two books have some comparable ideas and some stark differences. To me, however, they seem to land in the same sacred space – like opposite sides of the same coin.

 One is about a missionary whose experiences challenge her faith and cause her to reevaluate and reconstruct. The other is about a crisis of faith and how the writer is drawn back to a real, deeper, truer faith by his experiences writing about a mission.

One is blatantly honest about the pitfalls and problems of missions and missions systems.

The other tells the story of missionary work done well.

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The Very Worst Missionary is a snarky, brash*, transparent look at life as a missionary in Costa Rica – the good, the bad, and the lizard (Sorry, you’ll just have to read the book to understand.).

With humor and complete honesty, Wright shares the pitfalls of the systems that often drive missions work which, too often, embraces the trope “God doesn’t send the equipped but equips the sent”. Anyone who has been on a mission trip or spent time working in local missions will likely agree that this is not only illogical and potentially harmful, it isn’t actually biblical.  Jesus spent time training the disciples before sending them out.

Wright’s story is one of learning, in the midst of difficult circumstances, what faith beyond “following the rules” looks like and what real missionary work should probably be about.

Being a true friend

Without an agenda

Doing life together

And just loving people.

 When a natural group formed around football and friendship, it was unthinkable for Wright and her husband to view it as “a missions goldmine” like others suggested.

“These were our friends, and whether or not they wanted or needed to know Jesus was not something we were going to exploit for a paycheck or a newsletter. No way. The details of our personal relationships would not find their way onto the Internet or into a newsletter, couched in the mystery language of missions.” 

*read this as R rated language

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Where the Colors Blend is a present tense account of the author learning about a mission in order to write about it and how that, over a number of years, changes him and grows his faith. 

Copeland, who was raised in church and attended a Christian college, struggles with the dissonance he sees and feels within what he has been taught. He begins seeing how the guilt inducing, never question concepts of his experience within Catholicism and Evangelicalism are anything but the freedom the Gospel supposedly offers or shows any sign of the passion the early church seemed to have.

“I want to be so convinced that something is true, or perhaps so captivated by the pursuit of truth, that I would give my life or sacrifice my comfort for that thing. For Christ. For faith. For love.”

There are nuggets like this throughout the book – inspiring, challenging, convicting, and encouraging.

While at times I found the book to be unnecessarily wordy, it is well worth the time to read. 

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Both stories have a sports connection. 

Both writers draw the reader in with their authenticity to the point that you almost feel like you know them.

Both come to similar conclusions about what real faith looks like.

Both offer worthwhile insights about missions, faith, and following Jesus well.

 

“But to love others well, we have to see them as whole people in a big picture, not just cute little vignettes to be used in our own narrative. We have to remember that no matter how rich, poor, foreign, different, or messed up they might seem, they are as called by God and as rich in love as we are.”

 

“Show up as needed to love your neighbor with your eyes wide open and your arms outstretched. Start by doing your best … and the, tomorrow, do better.”

– Jamie Wright, The Very Worst Missionary

 

“It is what Christianity is at its finest: serving those on the margins and gravitating toward suffering, narrowing the gap, affirming the value and worth of all people.”

 

“My mentality must shift from looking out for myself to looking out for others; from obsessing over the American Dream to helping others attain their own dreams; from entitlement to generosity, from privilege to focusing my gaze on the alienated and marginalized; from ignorance to awareness.”

-Stephen Copeland, Where the Colors Blend

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received Where the Colors Blend free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

 

It’s All About The Books-Great & Glorious

“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.” – Louisa May Alcott

I’m excited to share about the two books I finished most recently.  One was great and the other was absolutely glorious! 

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Catching Your Breath by Steve Austin was great.  I read the entire book in just a few days. It was interesting and engaging. Woven through his story were many nuggets of truth, ideas to consider, and tips to act on. I appreciated both his humor and his directness. Rather than perpetuate the mistaken idea that faith automatically makes us happy and solves all our problems, Austin offers the reality that sometimes life is just hard – and that’s okay – and that living authentically requires vulnerability.  Here are just a couple of things I highlighted:

“Courage is criticism’s hidden gift. But just because something is beneficial doesn’t mean it is always comfortable.”

“Everything can be rolling along just great as you try to do what’s right or kind or wise. And things can still fall apart.”

 

It should be noted that the language and some of the stories might garner a PG-13 rating. However, I hope you won’t let that dissuade you from what you might gain from reading this book. It is one I will read again and that I plan to add to my book club’s selections for next year.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

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Glory Happening by Kaitlin B. Curtice was absolutely glorious!  It is one of the books I purchased last Fall at the Evolving Faith conference.  Many avid readers are familiar with reading a book (usually fiction) where you just don’t want it to end.  I can only remember a few times when I felt that way about a non-fiction book and this is definitely one of them. Each of the short chapters offers a vignette of Curtice’s life that delivers exactly what the subtitle states: Finding the Divine in Everyday Places.  After reading the first few chapters, I realized this was a book I wanted to savor. I ended up reading it more like a devotional and found myself drawn to it whenever life felt crazy or stressful. It was always like a deep breath of fresh air that rejuvenated my weary heart. There is a prayer following every chapter and I have marked a few of them I found especially meaningful so I can pray along with them again.

There is nothing not to love about this book. I have already purchased a second copy that I gave to a friend who was going through a rough patch and foresee purchasing more as gifts for family and friends.

 

It’s All About the Books – 2,3 & 4

“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.” – Louisa May Alcott

Computer issues and vacation have kept me from blogging for a while so I’m going to share my thoughts on three different books – one I loved,one was okay, and one I didn’t finish.

 

A Resurrection Shaped Life by Jake Owensby captures the heart of the Gospel and what following Jesus and resurrection really means for us.  It challenges faith and resurrection as a cognitive personal process and suggests that it is much more a state of being and doing! He takes resurrection out of the neat American box of something that happened to Jesus then and something that will happen to us later and with wisdom and inspiration shows how we are to participate in it here and now.

He uses the stories and words of Jesus and his disciples to show that real resurrection is a process, not an event.  From Jesus’s directives to turn the other cheek, love your enemies, spend time with “sinners” and more he puts before us how difficult truly being Christ-like can seem. However, he offers encouragement and explains, “…nobody gets the hang of living like Jesus all at once. Jesus teaches us to do things that most ordinary people call naive or just plain crazy. Anybody is going to be at least a little hesitant at first.”  It’s a process – but it is one that requires doing the things. I think that all too often we think the things Jesus directed the disciples and us to do are a good idea, in theory. We make exceptions. We pick and choose what does or does not change with culture.

The heart of this book is much needed HOPE of what the world could look like if we started living out resurrection instead of waiting for it. As harsh and lost as the world currently seems, he notes that Paul would remind us not to despair. “Hope does not disappoint so long as we feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. So long as we refuse to greet the stranger as an enemy. So long as we insist that our own welfare depends upon our neighbor’s well-being. So long as we not only respect but guard the dignity of every human being.” (Italics are mine)

For me, the message of the book comes down to this:

“Don’t just cling to hope. Be it. Lead a resurrection shaped life.”

Final note: This book is set up with reflection questions after each chapter and would make a great personal or group study.

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 The Disfiguration of Nature by James Krueger offers a different take on environmentalism and why is should be (and has historically been) a “conservative” issue rather than a “liberal” one. I found the history of America’s relationship with the Earth interesting and thru modernization we have become so disconnected with the land, what we need from it, and why we need to care for it.

While it initially felt a little condescending to me, I agree with his observation that:

“If we put up with big business, we have to put up with big government – the latter to check the former, not to serve it. It is more the point of this work, however, to forward recognition that the moral capacity of the average American for a real appreciation of putting conservation to work in the field will not enlarge unless the average American knows what it means to directly rely on and participate in the local land community.”

Overall, this book reads more like a thesis and some of the connections with current event issues seemed thin to me. He ends, though with an overview of the effects of the politicizing of environmental and human care that I completely agree with, writing:

“We have to conclude, then, that our political and moral categories are direly confused, and it is in the interest of those who profit the most from this confusion that they stay confused. As for the priest, he forgets that, as a priest, his citizenship is primarily in God’ kingdom, and only secondarily I the American empire, though he is charged to live in peace in the latter. He has lost his grounding in the gospel for the sake of a worldly agenda…”

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 Finally, I personally would not recommend The INTRAfaith Conversation by Susan M Strouse.

While I liked the idea of this book, I found it difficult to read and ended up giving up on it which is unusual for me.  I have little opinion of the content of what I read because I found the language to be geared to those with higher theology degrees and tired quickly of having to read footnotes, look up assumed to be known concepts, etc.  This book also has reflection questions after each chapter and might be good in a higher academic setting rather than a personal read.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received these books free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

 

It’s All About the Books #1

“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.” – Louisa May Alcott

Yes, please! I want my brain to keep turning – to keep learning – to keep replacing less mature thought with higher ideals. I am an avid reader, never satisfied that I have anything all figured out. I read to expand on what I know and to see viewpoints I could never understand otherwise. Recently, I have had the privilege of being a part of Speakeasy. I couldn’t be more thrilled.

So, here is all the legaleze that is required -Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

Finding God in the Margins by Carolyn Custis James takes a non-patriarcal look at the story of Ruth with the historical cultural context that is sometimes not considered in mainline teaching and preaching.

“The mistake we so often make is to assume patriarchy – at least some softer version of it – is the Bible’s message for us. But patriarchy is not the Bible’s message. Rather, it is the cultural backdrop against which the Gospel message of Jesus stands in sharpest relief.”

Seeing Naomi and Ruth as heros of the story alongside Boaz gives clarity to the choices made by each. The story of the plight of an immigrant who come with nothing and braves a foreign land could not be more relevant. If a Moabite had not crossed the border, if Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz had followed the rules and only what the law required, if they had not each risked their reputations and their livelihoods – there would be no Jesus. As James states, “Bethlehem’s greatness can be traced to the healthy kind of rule breaking that results when God’s people use their imaginations to pursue the spirit of the law.”

This look at the story of Ruth has lessons for all of us – on vulnerability and bravery, on confronting the status quo, and on not congratulation ourselves for following “the letter of the law”. The heart of this book, and the reason I loved it so much, is summed up in this:

“One of the biggest obstacles to a deepening walk with God is resistance to rethinking. Listening to others, learning, and changing. All through the Bible, God is repeatedly asking some of the people who walked with him the longest to be willing to be wrong and to learn and grow. Sometimes walking with God means learning truth that requires rethinking your entire life.”

This has been my experience over the last several years. It has been hard as people I love want to stay safe in their beliefs and what they have always been taught. However, it has been so life giving and has added so much more peace and joy to my life that I wouldn’t go back to a “following the rules” faith for anything.

Final note: This book is set up with reflection questions after each chapter and would be a great personal or group study. While it shares complex ideas and thoughts, it does so in language that is accessible to anyone.

Are We Exhibiting Fruit? Love is the First Step

Most Christians learn as children about the “fruits of the Spirit”.(1) We sing them, we memorize them for prizes and, hopefully, learn that they are indicators that we are following Jesus.

Sadly, if we don’t pursue growth through discipleship, we may never go any further than an elementary understanding of these characteristics.
Do we really believe that these attributes are what show the Spirit is in us? Do we recognize these traits as what show we are actual disciples of Christ? Are we willing to question and expand on things we’ve been taught in order to become more like Jesus? Or do our words and actions show that we more often prefer to be “justified by the law”(2) so we can follow rules and set boundaries for ourselves (and others) allowing us to justify ourselves and create our own standard of righteous?
Being Spirit filled is contrary to our self-focused nature.(3) Further, we have been, and often still are, taught that when we accept Jesus as our Savior we are immediately changed. While we are immediately forgiven, it is worth noting that there was time between Jesus’s death, resurrection, and the coming of the Spirit.
Being a disciple (different than being a believer) is a life-long process of becoming more like Jesus with the help of the Spirit. We must actively pursue this growth and it rarely comes naturally or easily. Sure, it is easy to love our family and even our friends – but what about our enemies?
So, let’s look at the main gauge of Christ-likeness we’ve been given a little more closely.
Most theologians agree that lists in the Bible aren’t random. The order of the people or things listed is significant. It seems a good assumption, then, that this also applies to fruits of the Spirit. If so, each is a step necessary to reaching the next one. You can’t do calculus without having fully learned multiplication – and you can’t do multiplication until you understand addition. Likewise, you can’t have self-control without having patience – and you can’t have patience without having love.
Love is the foundational step everything else is built on. It is why Jesus and His disciples talk about it so much. Love is the minimal indicator of our understanding and embracing Jesus’s entire message. If we are not exhibiting love to all – those who are easy to love, those who are difficult to love, those who have hurt us or may have intentions to hurt us, those who aren’t like us (our religion, our race, our politics), and those who “push our buttons” regardless of if their motive is to push us out of our comfort zone or to actually intentionally upset us. The command, and the way to self gauge, is how we’re doing on love. First, however, we need to be clear on what love looks like and what it doesn’t.
Because we, as a society, have carelessly used and overused the word love, we have diminished its meaning.

In doing so we have lessened our expectations of what love requires. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) We have minimized it to mostly meaning only the absence of hate. Therefore, if I don’t actively hate someone I can convince myself that I am loving them.
This plays out in churches across the country with slogans like “Love the sinner, hate the sin”. It’s catchy, it is, technically, theologically correct. However, our actions, feelings, and responses rarely reflect doing the loving or the hating, let alone both.
For example, abortion is a hot-button issue where it seems easy to hate the sin. There are plenty of examples, articles, signs, protests, and even a willingness to delude ourselves that the ends justify the means to get legislation against it. These all speak loudly of our hate.
What there appears to be very little of is love – loving women who see this as their only option or loving them even if they don’t have our particular convictions about it. Are we showing love by actively trying to eliminate the things that often cause women to make this choice? Are we speaking out at least as much against physical and sexual abuse, poverty, and lack of affordable healthcare as we are against abortion? Are we donating to organizations that offer shelter, care during pregnancy and supplies needed for caring for an infant?
We have somehow lost sight of what Jesus’s love looked like – eating with the poor, welcoming the immigrant, sitting with the prostitute and the leper and knowing their personal stories before offering help or hope. We should remember that most of Jesus’s criticism was aimed at religious folks who “justified” themselves with the law but exhibited little love.
Since Corinthians (4) circles up to higher steps in describing what love is, or how it shows its self, looking at what love is not may give us a better understanding.
I did a survey asking people to tell me what they felt were the opposites of each of the fruits of the Spirit. Some gave expected “first word that pops into your head” answers. While these answers weren’t wrong, they often feel like the easy answer when trying to expand on what the opposite of exhibiting “fruit” looks like.

Others offered more specific examples of what love is not:
apathy, indifference, fear, profiling, control, manipulation, self-interest, judgment.
Love is the first step that will allow us to reach the next one. Without love we are a “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal”.(5) Without love, across the board kind of love, we can’t experience or exhibit joy. Without joy we can’t know peace – and so on.
Let’s make an effort, with the help of the Spirit, to grow in love that Jesus, and others, will recognize.

Next week I’ll write about the anti-fruits of joy and peace.

1. Galatians 5:22-23
2. Galatians 5:4
3. Galatians 5:17
4. I Corinthians 13:4-7
5. I Corinthians 13:1

Faith Without Fear – An Allegory

Our relationship with Jesus is often likened to a journey. We say we “follow” Him. This is an appropriate analogy for many reasons. An important one is that we will never actually “arrive” at our destination while our feet tread this earth.  It is a continuing journey that should last our entire lives.  The path is ever-changing and requires determination and focus. Too often we allow fear or distraction to alter our path or inhibit our journey.

I find it helpful to think of this “following” as an actual hike on a rugged trail. Some parts are smooth and flat. There are hills – some low and easily navigated and others steep and sometimes treacherous. There is a creek bed with a peaceful flow of water but also slippery rocks to navigate. Along the way you may encounter wildlife and spiders and snakes.

What is Jesus came to lead us to something more than away from sin?

As we begin our hike, with Jesus as our Guide, we stay close to Him as he points out the obvious pitfalls and side trails that detour us off of our intended path. Watch out! There’s a tree root sticking up that might trip you.  Be careful. There are cockleburs in this area that will stick to you and cause aggravation. As He points out these hazards, He is also continually directing us to look at the beautiful view. We glance at the beauty and freedom we long for and then quickly return to concentrating on net making a misstep or allowing a cocklebur or tick to attach to us.

We move along and reach the edge of a small cliff. He has provided a railing to keep us from falling over the edge so we can look down into the valley of beautiful wildflowers. We appreciate the protection the fence provides but still stand back from it so afraid of falling that we only see a small part of the magnificent beauty He is trying to show us. We look on with worry at our friend who is leaning hard on the fence to take in all there is to see. Be careful! You might fall!

We are relieved to move on and busy ourselves with watching for spiders, snakes, roots, and drop offs. We not only are on the lookout for ourselves but also our friends – pointing out things that the Guide has quit mentioning knowing that either the followers are aware of the potential missteps or that some will have to make those missteps in order to fully learn and understand and appreciate the beauty.

We go forward, slowly & cautiously, not realizing that in being so busy protecting ourselves or trying to be a guide to others that we have lost sight of the Guide! Suddenly, frantically, we look around trying to catch sight of the Him. Finally, we glimpse the back of Him in the distance and are relieved to know that He is still there. However, instead of rushing ahead to catch up – trusting that He has cleared the way back to Him – we raise our stress level trying to continue over-cautious while at the same time trying to keep Him in sight… in the distance. We question every footfall – torn between wanting to be nearer the Guide and our fear of a mistaken step.  We exhaust ourselves to the point that we lack the energy and mindfulness necessary to catch up to the Guide no matter how much we want to do so.

The GOOD NEWS is that He will always come back for us if we ask Him. We can always start again. He will come back and meet us where we are as many times as we’ll ask.

Here’s the thing. If we start down the path again still guided more by fear than by the Guide – panicked that we may step out of line or run face first into a cobweb – we won’t get any closer to our destination. Our walking in fear results in us remaining far from Him and where He is trying to lead us. Our path becomes a continuous loop that never takes us past the one mile marker.

On the other hand, what if we trusted Him enough to let go of the fear?  What if we really believed He wants what is best for us while at the same time acknowledging that His ways are not our ways?

We start down the path again but, this time, we appreciate the “rules” for what they are – cautions that we might be entering dangerous territory. What if we realize that, in order to follow Him closely enough to get near the destination, we’ll have to walk thru some cobwebs (where He may have already removed the spider), steep over a snake or two and possibly even fall down on the slippery rocks? What if we need to be confident that the Guide will always be close enough to help us up, often without us even needing to yell for help?

As we become less distracted by the “what ifs”, the self-protection, and the fear, we become more reliant on Him and no longer need the warnings and railings to separate us from a clear view of this messy, hurt-filled world. We can begin to see the beauty He is showing us in both the safe and the scary places. We can move further down the path knowing that it is worth risking the weeds to see the flowers.  We learn that regardless of the scenery, He is urging us to see the actual people – their stories, their personalities, their difficulties – and to see the image of God in each of them.

The Guide wants us to release our reliance on the rules and precautions that separate us from Him and from others. If we’re following Him without fear, He may lead us into the briars so we can help someone else, lovingly, back onto the path. When we aren’t concerning ourselves with what our hike looks like to other hikers, we can point to the path, wet from wading into the creek to help someone up, and allow them to – in their own way and in their own time – make their way with the Guide (who is not us). Our path will rarely look like a straight line. It will not be without missteps, hazards, and some bumps and bruises along the way. It will often be difficult but it will be equally fulfilling and purposeful.

Walk bravely!

Trust the Guide!

Stop to notice the beauty!

 

“To join the fray of loving like Jesus loved requires a radical shift of heart and mind, and a practical shift in expectations and plans. Any hope of remaining safe, predictable, and clean must be traded for the expectation of uncertainty, instability, and perhaps danger. The path of love we are called to walk is not a broad road with clear markings devoid of any potholes or pitfalls; it is a narrow road, a road splattered with mud and sometimes blood. I know it sounds a bit messy, love always is.” – Jamie Snyder from Like Jesus

 

Faith Without Fear – Changing Our Foundation

Many of us, through no intentional misleading of our parents or even our churches, were raised in a faith whose underlying foundation is fear.  We were presented with a God to fear and then given Jesus to be our protector from that God.  God was the sometimes benevolent, but often angry, ultimate power that has to be mitigated by a loving, kind Jesus. We accepted Jesus to save us from ourselves, from hell, and from God’s wrath.

The relationship with Jesus that was meant to “break the chains” unintentionally becomes a different kind of captivity – a cell of bars made from all the rules and requirements.  As we encounter other Christians and denominations with more and different rules we add more bars.  When we change churches, even within a denomination, there are more rules and expectations – more bars.  At some point the bars become so close together that it is nearly impossible for Light to reach through.

Additionally, as we begin to interact with the larger world and become more aware of different faiths, of science, and of the culture we live in, we find it harder to follow the rules and teachings and sometime even begin to question them.  This often leads to a cycle of guilt (for questioning) and fear (having been told that questioning is sin not faith) leading to more guilt, more fear, guilt, fear.  Alternatively, we try harder to follow all the rules even though it seems impossible (because it is) and exhausting. We fight the underlying fear by trying to control, not only our own behavior but the behavior of others.

We’ve been taught that a “Christian life” looks like one fairly specific thing.  Fear of not being that drives us. Way too often the fear of making a mistake (sinning), losing control, or even not being able to maintain a comfort level we were never actually promised, freezes us leaving us unable to take a step without fear – even if that step moves us closer to Jesus.

This is not Good News!

 Jesus said, “Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Then come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.” (Matthew 11:28-30 TPT)

We will never escape a fear based faith until we find a way to see ourselves and others as God actually does. In Unafraid, Benjamin L. Corey explains it like this:

“…in this story we are not God’s enemies. We are God’s image-bearers and the most precious thing he created. We are not sin but are oppressed by the force of sin. We need saving but not from God or even ourselves – we need saving from all of those many things that interfere with our ability to perfectly reflect and receive love.”

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:17-20 NIV)

What if we acknowledged that Jesus came to guide us to a way of living rather than just to save us from our sin?

What if we focused a little less on what we (or others) shouldn’t do and more on doing what Jesus told us to do?

What if we accepted the role we were given and actually strived to be ambassadors of His Kingdom?

Jesus is inviting us to pursue a faith based on God’s love for all people.

This is the Good News!

I love what Corey says later in his book:

“The world doesn’t need any more skeptics, knee-jerk critics, pessimists, or general downers. It needs dreamers, thinkers, and co-conspirators who are dedicated to bringing a bit more of heaven to earth here and now – and who don’t let fear get in the way”

I want to be someone who dreams, thinks, and conspires to love others like Jesus did.  I want us all to live with the goal of making “earth as it is in Heaven”.

Wrecked – I Choose Love

In February of 2008 we were in a horrible wreck.  My pregnant daughter and I were taken by ambulance to the hospital while emergency workers continued trying to get my husband out of our vehicle. We were taken to our state’s top trauma hospital because they knew that was where they would be taking my husband. My daughter and I were both released later in the day.  My husband remained in the hospital for a week with multiple injuries. Once released, he remained in a wheelchair for a few months. Several other vehicles were involved in the incident and other people were also injured.

It was bad.

We learned later that the driver of the painting truck who caused the wreck (hitting us first) did not have a license and had an expired work permit, thus making him an illegal immigrant.

We were angry.

As more details came out and as we began to heal, we became less angry and more amazed at God’s provision, protection, and purposes.  Family and friends surrounded us with care. The more we talked about everything that happened, the more obvious all the ways God had his hand on the situation became.  The biggest detail was that we were not sitting in our “normal” spots in the car that day which meant my daughter ended up in the least impacted area of the car rather than the most directly hit.  There are also dozens of details surrounding the time in the hospital where we knew God was near and was providing for our care physically, mentally, and emotionally.  There was the conversation with an accident reconstruction specialist who after hearing the details for the third time just shook his head and said “that was a God thing because all my training says the car would have rolled over.”

We were amazed.

While my husband and I have some lasting physical effects, we are fine. The injuries that still trouble us serve as a reminder of our weakness and how little we actually control; they are equally a reminder of God’s faithfulness.  While we couldn’t control the physical impact, we learned every day that we could control much of the mental and emotional part of healing.  We could have become bitter and vengeful and this post would be about how bad illegal immigrants are, or a certain race is, or that we should build walls – all deluding ourselves into thinking that any of those factors could have prevented the wreck.

But, here’s the thing.

God didn’t prevent this! He knew it was going to happen and He allowed it – for His purposes. We don’t know what those purposes were for anyone else involved but we figured out what some of them were for us.

We learned lots of other things too. We found out that the painting company this young man worked for tried to tell the insurance companies that “some guy” stole the truck. Investigators disproved this rather quickly finding that he was not only employed by the company but they had sent him to go get lunch while they finished up at the paint store.  They likely knew he had no license and also that his work visa had expired.  They seem to have mostly been interested in maintaining cheap labor and then trying to cover up after the wreck.

As part of processing and working toward empathy and finally forgiveness, I asked myself many questions about that part of the situation:

How often are companies complicit in maintaining workers as illegals? Clearly this company had limited ethical standards so it isn’t hard to imagine them choosing to benefit from not paying taxes, benefits, unemployment, and other things required for a legal employee. The profitability must have seemed worth the risk.

How bad was it where this young man came from – how poor, how dangerous – that he was willing to stay on illegally to work?

Further, how complicated and inaccessible is the system to renew a work visa or apply for legal status? If the government offices were only open during the hours he worked, it doesn’t seem likely his employer would have been inclined to let him have time off, let alone encourage him to take care of it. It’s possible, if it was financially beneficial to them for employees to remain “illegal”, that they even purposely made it difficult to get the time and information needed for the process.

We just don’t know.

I choose to believe the best about this man – that he was just trying to follow directions and earn a living from an unscrupulous employer.  We don’t know exactly what happened to him after the wreck. We know he served several months under house arrest. It is likely he was fired and then in an even more difficult financial spot.  I truly hope someone helped him to attain legal status whether temporary or permanent.  I pray that if he was deported back to Mexico that he is in a safe area and was able to find work there.  I believe God was intervening in his life in an ultimately positive way just as he was in ours.

I chose to forgive.

For us, the wreck changed everything. My husband couldn’t take the high paying job he’d planned to after he retired because he was still in the wheelchair when the job became available.

God opened our eyes to our love of money and the false sense of security it brings.

While he recuperated, we had months of almost 24/7 contact with each other forcing us to deal with relational issues we had been actively ignoring and ones we’d remained too busy or distracted to notice. It isn’t an overstatement to say that we likely wouldn’t still be married if the wreck hadn’t happened.

God forced us to slow down and made a path for us back to each other and also back to Him on a much deeper level.

The losses dominoed as no comparable job came for my husband and I was picked for permanent layoff when the housing industry declined. The six weeks I was off work recovering and taking care of my husband as he recovered during the busy Spring season meant my sales figures were the lowest for that year.  All this and a few other factors forced us to leave the home we had built, mostly with our own hands, for something we could afford now.

God tore down the idol of a dream home that had become a nightmare and provided a home in the inner city where we learned and grew more than we ever could have in our house in the woods.

Mostly, we learned that there are multiple facets to all of our stories – the beautiful ones and the seemingly ugly ones. It is easiest to judge and misjudge others when we avoid learning the details of their story.

We can choose to look for and believe the best in the situation, in other people, and in God, or we can choose anger, bitterness, and fear.  But fear and love cannot occupy the same space. So, even if the anger or fear is “justified”, the result is the same – a heart shut down to empathy, mercy, and love.

I choose love.

A Complacent and Fearful People

As Christians, we are to be disciples of Jesus.  Simply put, this means we are to try to be like Him.  We are told we are sons & daughters of the King, a royal priesthood, representatives of Christ, and implementers of His kingdom – here, “on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

Yet in our day to day lives few of us aspire to, or even act like we have, this high calling.

Just like the Israelites who would doubt God time and time again, we doubt that the teachings of Jesus will actually work in this world.

Instead of being a bold witness to His ways, we have become a complacent and fearful people.

We refuse to take the personal risk of living out what He said.  We want laws and government to do the job for us so we can feel safe and comfortable even though that is the exact opposite of what Jesus said his followers would experience.

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” –John 16:33

He is not promising us an earthly peace, but His peace which passes understanding. Peace in the midst of fear, of disaster, of violence around us.

Empires, powers, and principalities of this world make laws and rules to protect those empires and to protect their power.  They are “of this world”.

For decades now, we Christians have been colluding with the enemy instead of working against it. To what end? It hasn’t gained us anything! In fact, it has only made those powers stronger and us more reliant on them – sometimes to the point of idolatry. This partnership has not, and will not, do what it promised.  It will not end abortion. It will not make the world safer.  It will definitely not protect our “Christian values” – many of which we have already sacrificed on its alter.

Sleeping with the enemy has left us impotent in the ways of Kingdom living.

We are not living the peacemaking way of Jesus, we are promoting wars and buying guns to protect ourselves.

We are not welcoming the immigrant, we are trying to keep them out or send them back – even to places they have never known or lived or to regimes that will likely kill them because they are fellow Christians.  Apparently we think it is worth it for our own false sense of security.

We are not loving our neighbors. We are allowing divisiveness and prejudice to run rampant in our world and even within the church.

We are not caring for the poor and for the widow.  We sometimes make a show of helping in the way we think is best for them but we are not listening to them, we are not willing to support programs that help them if it might cost us a few more dollars in taxes that we could spend on ourselves.

We seem to have completely forgotten, or have just chosen to ignore, that Jesus never said follow me and you will be happy, safe, and comfortable.  What He did say is:

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33 *

Until we can honestly admit that the American dream of more money, more power, and more success is in opposition to the Kingdom of God where all are welcome, where we are our brother’s keeper, and where we are not ruled by fear but by love, we will never be able to grasp living as a true disciple of Jesus.

 

I’ve been asking myself these questions for a while now.  I invite you to ask them too.

1. What did I do this week to bring Kingdom here, now?
2. What did I do this week that required courage – that caused me to risk my reputation, my safety, or even just my comfort for the benefit of “the least of these”?
3. Where am I relying on the things or the powers of this world instead of relying on God?

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* I love The Message version of this full verse in context:

^31-33 Jesus answered them, “Do you finally believe? In fact, you’re about to make a run for it—saving your own skins and abandoning me. But I’m not abandoned. The Father is with me. I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”

 

 

When Fake News Becomes Real

Fake News, Fake News, read all about it!

Over ten years ago conservative religious groups began talking about a “war on Christmas” that didn’t actually exist. They called for boycotts over the years on stores and restaurants whose advertising wasn’t “Christmassy” enough to suit them. There were numerous stories and memes and social media comments.  One of the well known ones was that __________ department store told employees not to say Merry Christmas to customers.  While this may have been true of some individual store manager somewhere, there is no evidence nor is it even likely that it was anyone’s corporate policy.  I actually worked for a large national retailer for a number of Christmas seasons during this time under two different store managers.  Neither directed anyone in what they could or could not say.  One did suggest that we be observant of our customers and choose our responses accordingly.  His suggestion had no religious overtones.  His example was that the holidays were often difficult for people who had lost someone during the year or for families who were missing someone serving our country overseas. His idea that we be thoughtful of, and kind to, our customers rather than mindlessly offering a greeting seemed to me like the more “Christian” thing to do.

Some groups and some people, even ten years ago, seemed to want to be offended.  I don’t know what motivated these people. I wonder if it might not have to do with a need to feel persecuted.  Across the world there are places where Christians are actually persecuted.  We are told in the Bible that followers will be persecuted and the disciples are examples of that truth.  American Christians seem to have felt the need to create some kind of situation so they could claim to be persecuted. They created the fake news of a “war on Christmas”.

These claims, more political in intent than religious, have continued to come up over the years. In 2015-2016 the President made it part of his campaign.  “If I become president, we’re going to be saying Merry Christmas at every store”, Trump stated.  He has continued to bring it up at his post-election rallies. (It should be noted, of course, that he doesn’t have the power to make people or companies say certain things.)

So here we are, Christmas 2017.  The President has an abysmally low approval rating so he’s spouting off about Christmas in an attempt to placate his far right evangelical base.

This is where it happens – when fake news becomes real. 

I have been in way too many retail and food establishments over the last few weeks. I began noticing that hardly anyone was giving a seasonal greeting.  I have had a total of three people actually say “Merry Christmas” to me. Further, they aren’t saying “Happy Holidays” either.  They’re saying “thank you” or the standard “have a nice day”.   I considered that maybe it was just my personal feelings influencing what I thought was happening so I ask some friends about their experiences.  Many of their interactions echoed mine.  Then I saw this tweet and responses about it from people who likely live in an entirely different part of the country.

So, at the very least, less people are actually saying Merry Christmas than in years past.  Further, when I said Merry Christmas to a clerk as I checked out earlier this month she was unsure how to respond.  She looked at me a little funny and said, “Uh, thank you?”  That’s when I started paying attention everywhere I went.  I realized, unfortunately, “Merry Christmas” has been turned into a political statement and most people don’t want to be associated with it.  The truth is, I don’t either. Sadly, I’ve quit saying Merry Christmas to salespeople and waitresses I don’t know.

The fake war on Christmas has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.