Haiti redux...

A week from today I will be back in Haiti. This will be my second trip to a place I never imagined I would go the first time. I am going to be visiting some future partners for our Haiti Water Project and check in on some water systems we previously installed. I can't lie...getting ready for this trip has been really stressful. It has been stressful because I got distracted and almost forgot why I am going. I tried to blame this nagging feeling of being comfortable and semi-detached on everything but what it was. I temporarily forgot that I am being given an opportunity to go to a place that needs what I can bring...and it's not necessarily clean water. It's hope...It's the hope we have in Christ... to provide for...to love...to redeem...and to restore us. I feel sad that it's so easy for me to lose sight of that sometimes. It's so easy to be distracted by things that are inconsequential and limited in scope in our lives. We have this interesting thing about going back to places that have done something to us...impacted us...wrecked us in some way. There is this primal pull...this urge that speaks to our soul. I have this theory that we are looking for something we lost...something left behind and in returning we hope to find. Whether joy...peace...innocence...hope or even faith, there is something we seek. My wife says, for her, that place is the ocean...any ocean. Something speaks to her very deeply there and something happens. Of course, we know that “something” is God. There is a transformation and renewal of spirit. For me my place is an unlikely place...a place of profound stereotypes of poverty and where injustices are carved deeply into their national identity and psyches...that place is Haiti. Mother Teresa once said, “When I look into the eyes of the poor I have an eerie feeling that Jesus is staring right back at me.” Jesus himself stated that when we are with the poor we are with him. That certainly is true in Haiti. I both feel and see that played out everywhere I look while there. Honestly, it rattles my cage. It rattles that cage that many of us live in...have put ourselves in. That cage is not only a metaphor for our comfortable minimal risk lives but for our churches. The purpose of a cage is to protect what is outside of it as much as what is inside. We become comfortable and secure knowing there is minimal risk and danger both in our lives and churches. Oswald Chambers wrote,

“Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to "go out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to "go out" through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.”

Clearly, we know God is calling us to “go out”...but we resist. It's just so easy to just slip back into living a vanilla, homogenized, and gluten free life. I feel pretty safe in saying that really isn't what Jesus is calling us to. To really follow Jesus is to live dangerously because it involves really loving people, and often times those that are not like us...sometimes very different. If we truly care and want to be agents of transformation, we must be willing to boldly take the risk of loving others despite the possibility that it will be difficult, frustrating and tiring. I need to be reminded of that sometimes...I need to be reawakened. How does Jesus do that ? He shakes us. How does He shake us ? He calls to come out of the cage...our self-imposed prisons and go to risky places and love and serve those in need. In Matthew 25: 35-40, Jesus said,

 'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

To just stand and be present among both the physical brokenness and the brokenness of others lives in Haiti is a reminder of what truly matters. I don't really know about anyone else, but that reminder couldn't have come at a better time for me.

thanks...for the thanks

In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others. ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It's that time of the year when we seem to place special emphasis on giving thanks and enumerating the various things we are thankful for. It's somewhat of a lost art, really. To be really thankful and be satisfied with what we have and live a life of gratitude is a lofty goal. Our culture makes it difficult if not nearly impossible. It becomes a chore for many of us because we have become so self absorbed and cannot waste the extra minutes in our day to let someone know that their ordinary kindness is appreciated and recognized. Thanksgiving, the holiday, has become another commercially crass and mostly meaningless day dedicated to gluttony. The overall feeling is that it's just a day that stands in the way of “black Friday” and ultimately Christmas. However, I really have a quite different take on the whole idea of being thankful and showing gratitude. I am really thinking that Jesus was working very hard to show us how gratitude is this amazing tool that prepares us to receive God's goodness...or blessing. It lays the foundation for our hearts and minds to receive this promised abundance that is already ours. When we give thanks in advance this, in effect, readies us to be able to receive what we desire, a desire that is already fulfilled in the invisible realm. In Psalm 37:4 it says,

 “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” 

It enables within us a faith sufficient enough to make the seemingly impossible things possible. To live in the presence of that fact is to live a life filled with gratitude for even the simplest and seemingly inconsequential things. Dr. Michael E. McCullough, from the University of Miami, says. “It is part of a psychological system that causes people to raise their estimates of how much value they hold in the eyes of another person. Gratitude is what happens when someone does something that causes you to realize that you matter more to that person than you thought you did.” Don't kid yourself...we really want to matter...we want to be significant. Of course, certainly we all know and have been taught that gratitude is very important. It is the universal, across the world, custom of civilized and mannered people to say a simple and basic “thank you” after receiving something. Most of us are grateful when we are blessed in some manner, but that gratitude continues to be a response to getting something. It is still the effect...the afterthought. We wait until we think there is something to be grateful for before expressing our gratitude. In that waiting we are missing some tremendous opportunities to build our faith and that of others by living in a state of gratitude year round. We really need to abandon the mindset of waiting to receive and then give thanks. The surprising paradox is we are constantly receiving and for that I am most thankful...  

throwing stones...

So, I'm no different than many others of us that have watched, yet another, celebrated public figure blow their life up right in front of our eyes. A highly decorated real life action hero...a previously impeccable warrior... has proven once again that we are all fatally flawed. It really got me thinking about fatal flaws both in the context of flawed things...objects... and in our flawed story we are writing with our lives as well. In presumably a brief moment of blindness and indiscretion the beloved and esteemed soldier and adviser to the president went from heralded military hero to fallen tragic hero. In pure literary terms a classic tragedy is getting ready to be written and played out in full detail on the evening news. In the ancient times of Greek tragedies this “fatal flaw” was called a Hamartia, which very simply defined is a heroes' critical error in judgment that results in his fall from an often times lofty perch. While there is much difference of opinion in the actual meaning of the word I think it is safe to say it is a moral failure...it is sin. We all have these failures but when you are a celebrity and live your life in the mainstream of public awareness it become easy for us to point fingers and endlessly analyze. It really seems like there is an abundance of stones being cast here lately. It is easy for us to join in the fray and heave a stone or two as that is our nature. However, Jesus made it pretty clear what our response should be in John 8:7, when He said, 

  “They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, "All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!" 

So, ok, then...who's throwing stones...now ? You see,this fatal flaw that brings us all down is also known as missing the mark and that simply defined is sin. It is a moral failure of such a magnitude it cannot help but capture our attention. Our culture has created the term “epic fail” to describe these events in peoples lives that we are so hungry to weigh in on even when we have very few, if any, accurate facts. Many of us us have witnessed so many of these epic failings in recent years we barely pause to think about what has been lost or wrecked or to even pray for those affected. We're too busy at the rockpile picking out the stone that will hurt the most. Why? What is our investment here? I think it is an instinctive reaction based on fear. Fear that it could be us...or that it is us. Even those who live seemingly charmed lives are not immune from being a victim of their own undoing. It really can all change in a second with one bad choice. I think of someone like Lance Armstrong, who many “worshiped” as a hero and how awful they must feel now. The more you feel bullet proof and removed from the failings of others the more shocked and devastated you will feel when it happens to you...and it will. The reason it will is that we are all broken and flawed...tragically...fatally...hopelessly. This flaw has but one purpose and that is to destroy you and everything around you. It is geared to take away every single thing that you own and that is important to you. Again, I refer you to Lance Armstrong...I have lost track of what he has lost. Everything he worked for and everything he believed in and us with him is gone. Clearly, it was the wrong thing as he was being deceived by his fatal flaw and in that process deceived us. Maybe that's what scares us just a little bit...how easily we can be deceived by our own subtle sins. These public examples are a huge lesson for us of what happens when we abandon our moral compass and think we know the way and can journey through life without God. Choosing to live life on our own terms without God or holding God at arms length initiates a series of events over time that culminates in ruin and personal disaster. We will never know the personal thoughts and the decision process that actually went on in someones mind prior to making a decision resulting in monumental consequences. However, I do know this...we have all done it. Whether your sin...your fatal flaw...has made it to the news is immaterial. Put away your smugness...your finger pointing...your gloating...your endless fascination with how others are wrecking their lives...I think it's time for us to drop our stones.

sigh...no more

Like many around me, I am truly breathing a sigh of relief that the bitterly contested presidency has finally been decided. In one of the most both vitriolic and garrulous election seasons, we all really need just to stop and take a huge deep breath and just...sigh. Yes, sigh. I think that is the perfect word for right now. According to The Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of sigh is,”to take a deep audible breath (as in weariness or relief),to make a sound like sighing  sighing in the branches>, grieve,yearn,”. So, I would be willing to say, that both weariness and relief is surely a feeling many of us are sharing right now. This feeling is being described and reported on the news as being “battle worn” and having “gone through the wringer”. It has been so obvious and apparent to note our many glaring divisions...our differences...the things that separate us. There is a harsh realization that our lines are drawn deep...very deep. Often times, in the heat of these battles, our beliefs and the things that give structure to our lives comes under attack. These attacks can be very personal...personal to the degree that we are reluctantly drawn into the fray. Everyone becomes a pundit and feels compelled to defend their own positions irrespective of opposing and sometimes better ideas. Nowhere was that more obvious than on social media. As election day drew closer the rhetoric increased exponentially and became a roar that assaulted us endlessly on Twitter and Facebook. We were pummeled with misinformation, deception and often outright lies in a feeble attempt to sway or shake us loose from fundamental truths previously established by Jesus. Those who consider themselves to be followers of Christ are easy targets as most everything we believe is absolutely contrary to the current political process and culture at large. Times are really no different now, in that regard, than in the time of Jesus. There is a massive effort to change culture...a battle for your soul...that becomes more obvious with every election. That change process involves manipulation, domination and control and the various media play a huge role in that. Os Hillman, in his book, Change Agent: Engaging your passion to be the one who makes a difference says,

“Most efforts to change culture (even within conservative Christianity) lead to manipulation, domination, and control. When God told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8 that they would be the head and not the tail, this would be the fruit of their obedience by fulfilling the first and greatest command to love and obey God. It was not a goal to try and achieve dominion in culture. Rather, it was the fruit of their obedience that would influence culture.”

It is abundantly clear that as a follower of Christ there comes a time that you are required to stand as Gods representative...an ambassador...a witness to timeless and life affirming truths. I'm not sure, really...but... I think that time may be now. Jesus has made it as simple for us. In Micah 6:8, it says, “ He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”. That is the thing that will heal our nation and draw us together...and we really need that right now...*sigh*

Reconnecting with compassion...

 

  As a follow up to my previous post, I decided to do something that I have never done on my blog...post a video. As you can see this is a talk given at a TED conference. As per Wikipedia..."TED talks strive to address a considerable range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can." I found this talk very compelling and I particularly enjoyed a number of comments. One that especially  struck me was, "Compassion also brings us into the territory of mystery — encouraging us not just to see beauty, but perhaps also to look for the face of God in the moment of suffering, in the face of a stranger, in the face of the vibrant religious other.” I think one of the biggest challenges us, on a daily basis is to enter into that "territory of mystery" particularly while surrounded by the wreckage of what is left of your entire life after a catastrophic event. We focus on the loss...the material things...we focus on our suffering and many times develop a victim mentality. We become self absorbed and lose the ability to see the face of God manifest in the face of a stranger or even our suffering. Krista says, " Compassion can be synonymous with empathy..." It is difficult, if not impossible to have empathy if we are living a self centered and sense of entitlement life. We see very little beauty or marvel at the incredible way suffering is designed to bring us closer to God. She additionally points out that this necessary compassion can be expressed in the simple act of presence. This is what Jesus excelled at...entering into peoples suffering...being very present...and responding. This is a sheer impossibility if you are selfish and don't live with gratitude. There are many times that we often positively relish the trials and sufferings of others, particularly if we have made some judgement about their plight without even knowing them. We feel smug and insulated and smack our lips in delighted self congratulation that " thank God...that's not me..." This is not anything even close to compassionate. It's making a bad situation many times worse... it separates us...it divides...it draws a line. And any time you're drawing lines, you are making boundaries...us and them...lucky and unlucky...blessed and not blessed...rich and poor...black and white...have and have not. You also are drawing that line between Jesus and...yourself.