Ironic Paradox

So, I have heard of this saying about westerners who wish to take a trip to Africa. From what I can remember it goes something like this- There is an interesting paradox with those who desire to travel to Africa. Maybe they have saved their money, raised the funds and have told everyone they know. They have surely spent much time and effort genuinely dreaming a desiring to go. The paradoxical idea happens when you begin to think about how many people want to get out of Africa. Maybe not altogether, but certainly those facing extreme poverty, sickness, or famine want to not be in that situation.

I thought to myself how ironic that notion is, because I want to go to Africa. I want to go to the area that is hurting, and clinging for a marginal existence. I want to spend my effort and time making this dream come true. But for what? Should I not just send money instead? Or write it off as useless striving after the wind? (Especially give the enormity of the issues).

Then I heard Simeon, an electrifyingly faithful and ambitious Ugandan. He is the type of person you meet for five minutes and feel that you've known your whole life. Simon has been visiting my church and during a recent meeting he challenged our church with a message stating, "we can get through our difficult times when we turn to God, and become rooted in Him".

Now, this might not seam earth shattering or revolutionary, but it was for me, and it should be for you too! Remember, Simeon is visiting us from Uganda. You know, the place were terrible atrocities have been taking place. A place were a twisted and manic army kidnaps children for recruitment as killing machines, and forces young girls to become wives of army leaders. That is the place he is coming from. We struggle to understand what we have not experienced.

There is nothing like our church in regards to accommodations or luxuries that he has seen or has access to. When he prays his knees bear witness to the red earth below. Yet, Simeon is still encouraging the group of us; even as we are sitting in the plush seats, under the incandescent sea above, and velvety carpet below. He is saying that we can get through the hard times with God. What incredible humility! What a perspective test! How can he be saying this to us when we have everything we need around us?

Compared with many Americans, Simeon does not have much to offer, and perhaps on the surface, even less to give. But he has his finger on the pulse that is innate in all those whom breath in and out. We are broken.

The "things" that surround us do not determine who we are or our happiness. The fact is, we all have fallen short of God. We all have been separated from Him. Some are eternally separated, and some are separated on different levels or to different degrees, but we are broken.

Simeon then challenged us with a story about allowing the hard times in life to establish roots into the ground. The kind of roots that anchor a huge tree, keeping it from being moved by storms.

You see, "there will be storms" Simeon said, but those who have taken the time to feed their "roots" by God's word, and have allowed their faith to grow deep will not be swept away by the storms of life. When they come we can stand firm.

Whether we are in an IDP camp displaced in Gulu Uganda, or a world away in the comfort of affluence and amenity the storm will come. Do you have roots?

Names have been changed

Shalom in the City

God’s desire is for His fullness, completeness, peace, provision, image, and nature to cover us as individuals, to fill your community, the city and the ultimately the earth.

There is a song by a band named Leland. In this song “Tears of the Saints” the singer cries out because of the brokenness and desperation all around. The opening line sets the stage for the entire song, “There are many prodigal sons, on our city streets they run searching for shelter”. He yearns for God’s glory, in essence his Shalom, and calls the ‘saints’ to guide the lost home. The pre-chorus grips my heart as the singer repeats “this is an emergency, this is an emergency”.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the complexity of today’s issues. We can sometimes find ourselves asking, “How change can occur?” We see shootings, drugs, crime, and severe fractioning of the family and we may be inclined to back down, or isolate ourselves. Why fight? What will change? Worse yet, we may have become so desensitized that we find ourselves slowly boiling like a frog in a lukewarm pot of tolerance-“is it getting hot in here”? Forgetting truth we may slowly become desensitized.

So what does this mean for us, what are we to do?

You see, the ‘world’s systems’, its ways of doing does not lead to peace, it usually leaves sorrow. But God’s system his way of living and doing adds no sorrow and leads to peace, or Shalom. Our ways of living, thinking, and doing is often not how God intended it to be.

Shalom can be defined as comprehensive peace. It is a Hebrew word that means far more than the absence of conflict or strife. According to Clifford Green “this rich term fills out the word community by embracing well-being, contentment, wholeness, prosperity, safety, and rest”. So then, ‘shalom’ in the city can in part mean being a good neighbor. However, it is not just random acts of kindness that brings this shalom. In fact, we find that it is a matter of the heart that leads to change. It is only change that happens inside of us, leading to change outside and then through us that brings the true Shalom into the city.

The story of Christianity is the story of God bringing redemption to his creation. Pastor and writer, Rob Bell stated that he once “heard a teacher say that if people were taught more about who they are, they wouldn’t have to be told what to do. It would come naturally. When we see religious communities spending most of their time trying to convince people not to sin, we are seeing a community that has missed the point. The point is not sin management”. Instead we should be illuminating what is good, and exemplifying the choices and ‘story’ of how to live. We live the Shalom found through God’s story and it then changes the city.

For further reading check out the following:

Proverbs 10:22 Rob Bell- “Velvet Elvis”

Psalm 122 Andy Crouch- “Cultivating Culture”

Jeremiah 29 Philip Graham Ryken-“Jeremiah & Lamentations”

Romans 1

I John 2:16