Seeing God's Hand

If I haven’t been writing much, it’s because I’m in Africa with a short term team doing some work alongside some international workers (IW’s) and providing a water well.  I’ll write more about the well some other time.

There are six of us from Canada here for 9 days.  Now the process by which we selected these co-workers isn’t rocket science and it doesn’t sound particularly spiritual.  Basically, after praying for God’s guidance, we asked them(!).  Of those we asked, some said no, some said they can’t because of timing or other commitments and five others besides myself said yes.  That’s it (for the selection process), and though it doesn’t look like much, consider how it all worked out:

One member who is relatively quiet but has a powerful testimony found himself sharing that testimony with a group of male non-believers over several cups of African tea.  This was undoubtedly a divine appointment.  They are struggling with anger at their situation (of poverty and unemployment), and face a future that looks bleak and depressing.  Our team member’s dad died while he was young, and he struggled with anger at his situation.  He was part of a youth gang back then, and faced an uncertain future – poor, angry and surrounded by people who were a bad influence.  Yet God found him and redeemed his life, giving him hope and purpose. While the circumstances were different, the relevance was real and thick.

Another member who is a retired neo-natal nurse was able to spend time working at two orphanages, providing love and compassion for small children who are sorely lacking this for the most part (both ministries being taxed by lack of resources, space and volunteers).  Because of her involvement we were able to bring 4 suitcases of baby clothes and some medical supplies to bless these ministries.

Another member who is a teacher has a whole day scheduled to teach ESL.  Owing to connections back home she was able to bring some practical material and guides to help the rest of us, and what might otherwise be looked forward to with trepidation (none of the rest of us felt competent at this task, and it’s a whole day) is now well planned and mapped out.  Additionally, she speaks the language of the country and can help us navigate the myriads of conversations we have with locals.

One member has their own business teaching children juggling. This turns out to be tremendously useful on the well ceremony day, and brings joy and refreshment to many at the compound we’re staying at and every IW home we visit. He speaks the language very fluently and is a tremendous help to all, as he finds analogy after analogy that speaks to the country’s situation and the needs of the people.

Another member is able to spend time with an IW’s autistic son (she has a son with similar difficulties). She’s also able to counsel some IW’s we meet who need an objective ear.  While almost all of her ministry is in the background, it’s an important work in our stated objective of bringing mental/emotional and spiritual refreshment to both the IW’s we work alongside as we bring physical refreshment to those they minister to with the water well. 

I myself have seen both planned and unplanned opportunities to speak into the spiritual lives of those here.  I preached on the Sunday service (planned), I was able to speak from the Scriptures at the well ceremony (not so planned) and I was able to organize the 2^nd Sunday service just prior to our departure (a surprise opportunity).  I was also able to use my business background to speak into a difficult management situation with an IW here who is running a ministry that employs almost 50 people. 

Well all that is good and nice, the truly astonishing thing to me is that God has given each of us unique opportunities to exercise our specific group of skill sets and gifting.  Each one is needed at a particular time and must call upon both their past skills and their present spiritual gifting (the gifts of God are un-revocable and permanent, but the state of their development changes as we grow to maturity in Christ) .  No one is left out, no one is unimportant. 

This speaks powerfully to me of how God uses our lives.  He uses all the past (if we let Him), all the present skills and gifting we have (if we let Him) and every circumstance we face (if we let Him).  And He does this more often than not in ordinary experience.  In this manner we’ve all seen His hand this week in a powerful and personal way that speaks just as much to us and who we are as it does to those we minister to.  Praise God!

Judging Rightly

This morning I read an article in the National Post about a fellow in Montreal being ordered by a Human Rights Tribunal to pay 12000$ to his gay neighbors.  This because five years ago one of these neighbors drove down the street recklessly and almost hit his son who was playing street hockey.  The man in question subsequently and allegedly called them a ‘homophobic’ name.  It is important to note that the man in question was acquitted of all charges in a court of law, yet in spite of his legal innocence  and what appears to be (at the least) mitigating circumstances, the tribunal obviously felt they had to punish this individual severely.  All for calling someone a name.

Jesus said that whoever is angry with his brother will be guilty before the court, and whoever says ‘you good-for-nothing’ will be guilty to the supreme court, and whoever says ‘you fool’ will be guilty enough to go to hell (Matt 5:21-32, my paraphrase).

Of course, Christ was telling his disciples (and the crowd that was following Him) that what the lawyers were teaching them about the interpretation of the Mosaic law was missing the point of that exact same law.  While the Pharisees and teachers of the law were busy focusing on of the actions of a particular individual to ascertain guilt, Christ was saying that the important thing was the choices that person was making (including those choices made long before murder or adultery physically occurred).  If the choices of an individual were away from God’s righteousness, then the righteous requirements of the law were broken.

Choices to stew in your own anger (turning it into hateful speech, etc) or to hesitate in your appreciation of beauty (turning a look into lust, etc) are choices made to turn away from God.  They may not be the end action, but they are the beginnings of murder and adultery, and they break the intent of the Law just as the actions do. The Lord sees the inside and judges accordingly.  But because we can only see the outside we tend to focus only on the outside (and the obvious end result). 

Right use of God’s Word (reading, meditation and memorization/recall) allows us to see our own choices in the light of His eternal and correct viewpoint.  We can choose to do that, or we can choose to nitpick His Word and define by human standards just where the dividing line is between right and wrong.  The former leads to right choices, right decisions and right judgments.  The latter always leads to relativism and distortion, and we then miss the whole point.  Taken to extremes, it often results in teaching others to ‘major on the minors’ as some would say.  This in mind, one can only look at the story I read this morning with disbelief at the sad irony of it all. 

“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   Amen.  And soon, Lord, because it isn’t being done in Montreal.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Homophobic+comments+cost/4112393/story.html

The hierarchy of suffering

Quebec police are investigating a very sad case about a dog and her eight puppies that were attacked with a nail gun near Granby and left for dead just before Christmas.  Hundreds of offers for adoption have poured in and the case is all over the on-line news as well as the newspapers.  The story is distressing and horrific.

That said, the same day the police started that investigation there was another article in the news that ought to be even more distressing; Continued gang rapes and violence in the refugee camps in Haiti (police there apparently often just drive by and official reports/complaints are met with shrugs).  Yet where is the outrage on that report?  How does the one about animals somehow generate more of an effect in society?  One might conclude that our media believe dogs in Canada are more valuable and worthy of compassion than girls and young women in Haiti.  Of course, if you ask any one individual, you’d almost certainly hear the opposite opinion.  Why then the decision to promote one new story over the other?  Just who determines the hierarchy of suffering?

On this point the National Post had an interesting article (the same day).  It focused on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and their intention (when they open in 2013) to have a special section for the Holocaust.  This decision is being met by some resistance among groups that have also suffered (such as those under the Holodomor), raising the question of how one groups’ suffering can be more important than another’s.  The author of the article wrestles with this, and wonders if it is because we have a more complete grasp of the horrors of fascism (being book-ended by the rise and fall of Hitler) and don’t fully grasp the extent of communism’s murderous spree, which started in the early 1930’s under Stalin and was still in full swing in China under Mao in the later 1950’s.  A morbid case could be made that higher quantities of people died under Mao than under Hitler.

But I don’t think it is quantities of people that ‘qualifies’ it as newsworthy in this day and age.  I think it has much more to do with how well the readership can relate to the people (or animals) in question.  The hierarchy of suffering only really matters to curators and statisticians – if someone we know and care about is suffering, then that’s all the motivation we really need to champion their cause.  The opposite is also true.  If we don’t have any personal connection, then it’s just a statistic.  A number to exclaim a comment on and then pass by.  There is no lasting impact and certainly no change in either the reader or the situation. 

That may seem like a very simple observation (create a relationship, create impact), but the implications are profound in this day and age when most relationships consist of on-line text.  It means those who develop better on-line relationships are much more able to effect change, and that means the causes of those who ‘friend’ and ‘tweet’ the most are those which will ultimately direct the agenda of the day. 

Now how do you think that bodes for Christianity in the coming days?  And we wonder why the persecuted church suffers in silence still.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Vicious+cruelty+shocks+Granby/4079947/story.html

http://atlantapost.com/2011/01/07/children-of-rape-are-latest-legacy-of-haiti-quake/

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/01/07/rights-museum-is-it-proper-that-the-holocaust-gets-special-billing/