Heart Wrenching

I recently finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It is a breathtaking and heart wrenching novel that invites the reader into the lives of two women living in Afghanistan. It powerfully captures the beautiful desires of these women and the horrific circumstances that bestow tragedy after tragedy upon them. Despite living in the horrific shadow of war and the abuse of a patriarchal society these women actively bring redemption into each other’s life.This book exposes the futility of violence, the undeniable evil of patriarchy (in whatever form it may take; our Western forms are just as destructive), and the incredible power of love and hope. I hope that you take the time to be captivated by this story.

The role of the church is to not be in charge…

I just finished reading the book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond. Jared was in Papua New Guinea and a native man asked him this question: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” This book attempts to answer that question specifically and broadly. By that I mean the question could be asked a hundred different ways. Why is Bolovia the poorest country in South America? Why is Sub-Sarahan Africa so poor? Why didn’t China colonize the Americas? Why didn’t Native Americans colonize Europe?

Through the book Diamond attempts to prove that the answers to those questions most often lie within the geography of a country rather than the people themselves. There is much more to be said about all that, but as I finished the book last night some things came to my mind about the role of the church in society.

This book reveals that the history of humankind is a story of people attaining advantages and then using those advantages to take over other people. The history of humankind has been a fight for survival. Often times religion has played the role of justifying one group’s survival over another.

We see this in the history of Christianity: Constantine, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the persecution of Anabaptists by Lutherans, the exploration of the New World, and even today with the Moral Majority, the War on Terror, Evangelical lobbyists in Washington, our Christian President, the list goes on.

I have always struggled with the idea of the soveriegnty of God. Mainly because I find that many Christians use the idea to justify people spending an eternity in hell, or one groups “blessed” state of existence compared to the “cursed” state of others.

And then last night it hit me, to believe in the soveriegnty of God is to assume the role of not being in charge of the world. The rest of the world is fighting tooth and nail for survival. The role of the Christian is to entrust one’s survival into the hands of God.

What are the outcomes of this posture:
1. A Christian cannot use the sword to enable their survival.
2. A Christian cannot assume roles of political power to enable their survival.
3. A Christian assumes the role of stranger or alien in any land that they inhabit.
-Thus abandoning any idea of a Christian nation
4. A Christian believes that Jesus is the Messiah, and it is his role to bring about a new heaven and a new earth.
5. A Christian is a suffering servant.
6. The Church is a minority group.
7. The Church is a fellowship of people who freely assume this role.

To Own a Dragon

I’m reading Donald Miller’s book To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing Up Without a Father. In one of the chapters he reflects on a time when he was reading a book by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower talked about how his parents raised him with this attitude: “That the world could be fixed of its problems if every child understood the necessity of their existence.” Miller’s childhood though caused him to assume the very opposite about his own existence: “I grew up believing that if I had never been born, things would be easier for the people I loved….Deep inside, I believed life was for other people-that joy was for others, and responsibility was for others…In life, there were people who were meant to live and people who were accidentally born, elected to plod the globe as the despised.”

As someone who grew up in a broken home, a house where the dad was no longer there post age 14, these observations rung true. I find these words pertinent at this time especially because I am moving 2000 miles away to pursue a degree that prepares one for full-time ministry. Now many ministers feel like their existence is not only a necessity, but God’s gift to the world. Quite the opposite for myself. My feeling is more often that my existence is not a necessity, someone else could very well do the job.