"I believe in a kingdom that's not of this world. I believe in a Way that's much more real than what we know. I believe in a day when we'll see the reign of a King on the earth.
His kingdom is coming. I believe! "
I'm taking some time to read back through the book that we studied during the SSJ, Quest for Hope in the Slum Community. Wow. I look forward to having more time to focus and process a lot of this material. Tonight I'm in chapter 17 titled Champions of Justice. I'm going to summarize some of it, type a lot of quotes, and rant when I feel like it. It's both refreshing and painful to go back through this stuff. I wouldn't have it any other way. This is becoming the beat of my heart. In Mother Teresa's words, " 'I have chosen you to be Mine.' That is our vocation (calling). Our means, how we spend our time, may be different, but a vocation is not a means. Vocation, for a Christian, is Jesus." I'm leery of using the word "calling" these days, for reasons I will explain later. I understand my purpose of existence is to be in a loving, surrendered relationship with my Creator. And I'm beginning to see how I live that out, what I do with my time, is going to be serving people-- often broken, poor people; some young, some old; some eaten with disease, some very healthy; some in physical slavery, some in spiritual slavery; all needing to be touched, to be loved, to be taught about a compassionate God who sees them and feels their pain.
All of that said, here's some encouragement from my book:
C.S. Lewis wrote, "Despair is a greater sin than any of the sins that provoke it." And surely for Christians looking at our incredibly evil world of injustice and oppression, despair can always be found lurking at the door of our hearts, waiting to hobble us the moment we begin to take our first steps forward. After all, what can we do? How can we make a difference in a world of such massive and brutal injustice?
... in the face of such brutal injustice that rivals anything, anywhere on our globe today, courageous Christians simply refused to despair. Thankfully, America has never been the same. (Look up the stories of Kate Bushnell, Edgar Murphy, and Jessie Daniel Ames)
When I raise my eyes, even for a moment, to the history of God's courage expressed in His people, I find hope and steadiness of heart. I so easily lose all perspective and hope... the injustice and oppression in the world is powerful, relentless, and pervasive, but as these three faithful witnesses attest, we are neither without a foothold to withstand its blows nor powerless to rescue those pulled under by its force. There is a testimony of great hope in seeing how God has used ordinary people from all nations, extraordinary in their faith, to bring rescue to those who were hurting.
"We hope because of what we've already experienced. Christian hope is both possession and yearning, repose (rest) and activity, arrival and being on the way. Since God's victory is certain, believers can work both patiently and enthusiastically, blending careful planning with urgent obedience, motivated by the patient impatience of the Christian hope." --David Bosch
* I love this quote! The description of our hope being "patient impatience" makes so much sense to me. All things happen in His timing, I know. This shouldn't, however, hinder me from acting now and making choices that usher His kingdom into my life and the lives of those around me. It is truly both arrival and being on the way. Oh Lord Jesus, come! And give me an expectant heart to give everything even when I don't see Your coming.
"It was a stupendous victory of the evil one... to have tempered our expectation to the point of compromise, to have given up the hope for wholesale transformation of the status quo, to have been blind to our own responsibility for and involvement in a world en route to its fulfillment."
-- Ouch. In the words of Dean Sherman, "Wake up, Church!" We must face our own failure in this area of living the words and commands of Jesus. Satan really has deceived us in that it's only for certain people to care for the poor, or to be intimately involved in the lives of others, or whatever. We have failed. But we don't have to be stuck in that failure. Let's start today: believing that God is working, that people's lives are being transformed by the Gospel, that we have the awesome opportunity AND responsibility to be a part of the kingdom of God changing this world. We must uphold the standard of a holy life, refusing to accept that it is no longer necessary. We must hold hope. As another book says, we have to say yes to the words of Jesus before we hear them.
Micah 6:8, "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
And these are the questions that go through my mind every single day, that I have yet found answers to. Maybe it's not about the answers anymore. Do something anyway. Do it scared, do it with doubts, but do it.
What great work of justice might God perform through us, in our time, to the glory of Christ?
How might God renew through us the witness for biblical justice in the world?
What child in bonded labor in India, what girl held in prostitution in Manila, what innocent man rotting in a Kenyan jail might yet stand and testify that the hand of a faithful God touched them and loved them through the obedience of Christians who refused to despair?
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