Sunday, 07 December 2008

• This is kind of a doozy again...sorry friends

  Some of you are probably wondering what the honk happened to me? Some of you probably stopped checking my blog, because I never update it anymore. And some of you I have talked to me and know why I haven’t been around, but still miss reading my thoughts on random things.

  • To all of you, I apologize.
  • Many are wondering how I feel about the election and the economic crisis, some are still wondering about China, and others just want to read my snarky comments on certain issues in the church J
  • To all of you again I apologize.
  • This will probably be a longish post, but I have a few things to catch you all up on. This will probably be random and not well organized, but it should be interesting.

   

  • 1. THE ELECTION: Let me start by saying that I deliberately stayed out of blogging about the election. I did not want to sway anyone’s vote, and I really wanted to force my friends to wrestle through who they were going to vote for.
  • After years of working in politics, I was more convinced than ever that politics is really satan’s domain. It is a worldly system and therefore, he rules it. Does it mean that Christians have no responsibility in their voting/civic duty? Probably not, but I used to believe that the system needed good solid believers in it to help redeem it for Christ, and I’m not so convinced that that works anymore.
  • I am not convinced that my vote “counts”.  
  • My experience tells me that if there is an environment that will kill your hope that you can make a difference in the world, it’s the environment of politics.
  • Many people will say I’ve become cynical, I will say that I am probably the most hopeful, optimistic person you will meet. I actually believe that making small personal changes in my behavior can impact the world. I buy local, I buy fair-trade, I recycle, and I buy hand made, not because it’s the “cool, trendy” thing to do, but because I honestly believe that there are people lives that I am impacting directly and indirectly by living my life this way.
  • I thought very long and hard about who to vote for. I wrestled through my decision , as I do every election year.  And I could not in honest or good conscience vote for either presidential candidate. I will not go into details as to why, because I do not wish to spark a debate about the pros and cons of the candidate, But I will tell you who I voted for.
  • I wrote in Jesus Christ! Why?:
    • It was an act of worship for me to proclaim my allegiance to him!
    • It was an act of trust and an acknowledgement that I am not putting my faith in people to bring about the changes I wish to see in my country in world
    • It was symbolic of the fact that I believe that only He is my ruler, and that the church as His body is responsible to help bring about the change we wish to see in our country and world. My hope can never be in Obama, McCain or the congress. They are corrupt and tools of this worldly system.
    • Because God loves us he places leaders to provide some semblance of order, but this system (a president or a king) is never what he wanted. He wanted to be our only ruler and king, but the people of God wanted to be like the other nations and God gave us over to what we threw a tantrum for. If you wonder why politics is so contentious, it’s because this was never the system God intended for us.

   

  • If you voted for McCain or Obama…good for you. I hope you wrestled through why you did it and felt at peace with God about it. I am not trying to convince you that you should feel as I do, but I do think that you need to submit everything in your life to Christ and see how he leads you!
  • I have been greatly influenced by a few things that I’ve read recently, The Beattitudes being the biggest! All of Shane Claiborne’s work, Gregory Boyd’s “The Myth of a Christian Nation”, Yoder’s “The Politics of Jesus” and the work of many great Christian Pacifists.
  • I can no longer live under the illusion that the best we can do is resign ourselves to the system as this world as the best it can be. God has called us to be a peculiar people, and I think the church in the US blends in way to well.
  • NOW! HAVING SAID ALL OF THAT: May I just say how wonderful I think it is to have been alive to see a Black Man elected president!!! This was an amazing step forward for our nation and I pray for Obama daily.
  • BUT I also live under no illusion that Racism is no longer an issue in our country. I think it’s just gone underground and many people still raise their kids with hate and unfounded fear of other races.
  • It was ironic and painful to me that while the nation took a huge step forward elect a black man as president, the state of Nebraska in an act of fear, misunderstanding and  I would say Racism, passed a ban on Affirmative Action.
  • I know some of you greatly disagree with me on this, and that’s fine.  I will not argue this out with you, so don’t try.
  • The only thing I will say is that no one wants to believe they are racist, and it can take years to realize the subtle hate you’ve been raised with. But I ask you to please examine your heart, ask God to reveal any racism that might be lurking in there. Particularly, if you grew up in a White, Christian home. You will be most likely to believe that you have no racism, but you might be shocked to find what lies in the depths of your heart and mind.

   

  • CHINA:

   

  • China was wonderful. I love being there, but it always deeply impacts my life and makes living here in the states just a little harder for me. God has given me such a love for the Chinese people, that I can hardly express. I feel a kinship with them that is hard to describe, other than to say when I’m with the Chinese I feel at home.

   

  • One of the things that deeply impacted me this time around was coming face-to-face with the persecuted church. We just have no concept of what it is to live the way they do.

   

  • I think between meeting  my friend J and going to house churches where we sang songs about the beauty of martyrdom, the joy of trials and persecution, and the kinship of being united with Christ through suffering opened my eyes to a part of our family that we rarely consider or pray for.

   

  • Many of the teachings of Christ and Paul hold very little relevance to Christians in the US because we live in such affluence and comfort. The most persecution we may face is the rejection of our family or the mocking of a co-worker. But how would your relationship with Christ and the Body of Christ changed if you lived daily with the reality that you may be beheaded for your faith?  Or that you might literally be imprisoned or kicked out of your home because you are following Christ.

   

  • I have many friends who feel like they’ve not experienced the presence of Christ or have not heard him speak to them, but I ask, why would we need that? Why would we need the comforting presence of Christ or for Christ to appear to us if it is so easy for us to believe and follow Christ in the midst of our lavish wealthy lives?  This may be a touchy subject for some of us who feel we’ve been through “real” suffering, but let me argue that I think Christ comes to us at the level in which we need his comfort. I don’t want to downplay anyone’s suffering (or my own for that matter) because it is very real to us, but I do want to put it in perspective to what many of our brothers and sisters face around the world. When you are hurting and cry out to God for relief, Cry out to God for them as well.

   

  • Even as I write this, I’ve been getting emails from Jeff Petersen about the Berean Pastors in India that are facing intense persecution, beatings, and jail time. Pray with me for our brothers and sisters in chains around the world.

   

  • On a lighter note: In China I got to work at an orphanage for a day. And let me just say that God made a huge break through in my life at that time and I am really comin around on this whole kid thing. I’m not terrified of them as I once was, and I may even be persuaded to have one or two of my own someday. Alright, probably not really physically I know, but adopting one or two. Crazy, I know…but God is a miracle worker J

   

  • I have so much more to tell you all, but I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Seattle. I am here visiting my friends Jess and Erik Hustad, and it’s already been a huge blessing to me.

   

  • I am going to run though and spend some time reading my book about Rich Mullins that I’m absolutely loving and I want to spend some time journaling about several things that are on my heart. I will try to blog again Sunday!

   

  • Til then, I will leave you something to Ponder, and I will probably blog about on Sunday.

  I have been thinking a lot about this, I don’t think I’ve read it anywhere, but it just sort of popped into my head.

              We are not as much called to live by the golden rule “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you”, as we are called to live this way: “Do unto others, as Christ has done unto you”.

   

  Think about it!

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