To See and To Love

The first thing I heard this morning was that an earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand. One of my coworkers is a Kiwi so he was a bit frazzled trying to get skype to work on our slow internet connection to see if his family was ok. I checked facebook only to hear other friends of mine give a good report that their friends and loved ones had all survived the terrible tragedy. My coworker’s family all survived and only his aunt was injured but they expect a full recovery.

It made me think about how real world tragedies seem to me. I guess for most people the news that tragedy hit New Zealand is sad but doesn’t really touch people personally. For me it’s only 2 degrees of separation. I thought about it and I suppose I have only 2 degrees of separation with people in at least half the countries in the world in some way or another. It’s so much easier to care when it hits closer to home.

I’ve been reading Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is challenging me in so many ways. The concept of Christian community and what God intended for it to be is so challenging and encouraging. How we far too often replace human love for the supernatural Godly love we are called to have. Human love actually only serves our own interests instead of the interest of others. How easy it is to be so self absorbed and so full of pride instead of the people and community God created us to be.

I thought about how we often don’t know our neighbors and don’t even try to love people unless it serves our own selfish interests. I used to work with homeless people when I lived in America. I would mention it sometimes to other Christians and the majority of the time I was hit with remarks like “Well they’re only homeless because they choose to be.” “They’re all just lazy drug addicts.” “They deserve it.” “Don’t give them handouts.” My normal rebuttal was simple “have you ever talked to them?” There was never a time when any of them could tell me yes. We sit in our high lofty towers and judge the world without love or compassion. I’ll never forget Shane Claiborne saying a woman told him not to focus so much on the poor or think he could actually stop poverty because Jesus said the poor you will always have with you. Shane Claiborne responded “How many of the poor do you have with you?”

Even though I have friends all over the world and have dedicated my life to helping the poor, I still find myself being all too self absorbed. It’s so natural, so easy to think about my own needs and slip into human love alone. I feel compassion for the earthquake in Christchurch because my coworker's aunt was injured and I care about my coworker because we mutually help each other do our jobs better. If a hurricane were to hit my relatives in America I would expect him to also show compassion towards me.

So there are kind of 3 groups of people. Friends and family who are easy to love. People who you can mange to love without the Holy Spirit’s help. Then there are strangers. People you don’t know and don’t relate to and don’t expect to ever get anything in return from. Those people are not so much hard to love but hard to see. Like in the movie The Blind Side based on the true story. Michael wasn’t hard to love he has just hard to see. The third group would be enemies. Of course at least for me I don’t think I really have any enemies. But what I mean is people who no matter how much you try to be loving and try to do the right things or even just go about your own business they treat you poorly. Loving those people goes completely against human nature. If we are truly living in the Spirit though loving these people unconditionally without concern for oneself is natural.

So my prayer is that I would live in the Spirit at all times. I want to love all people at all times no matter what. I want to see people. God help me to never be like the 2 who passed by the man lying in the path but to always be like the good Samaritan. I want to always be loving even to my “enemies” or to those who mistreat me. To never be judging and lofty. To always show grace and patience. God help me to love just like Jesus did.

My life is ridiculous, but I like it!

It was raining, not pouring, just the typical Congo rainy season constant flow of rain. I felt blisters forming on my toes because I was wearing a friend’s shoes that were a size too small. All of my shoes were stolen and it’s not like you can buy shoes in the middle of nowhere. I was trampsing through the woods on a muddy path pushing my motorcycle because I had a flat tire. As I curled my toes to try to avoid the rubbing of my newly formed blisters against the harsh leather of my friend’s shoes I asked myself a question that comes to my mind often while I’m in Congo, “What am I doing here?”

As I continued down the path starting to get tired I realized I had made it about a mile and only had one more mile to go before reaching the mining camp. I thought about my current predicament and how it illustrated my life at the moment. I had been on my way to the little farm I had been working on for 6 months when my tire went flat. I left my motorcycle behind and walked the rest of the distance to check things out. To my dismay I found a colossal failure. My guys had abandoned the project when all the craziness happened and my company was kicked out. Had they just worked a couple hours a day in the garden they would be sitting on a few thousand dollars worth of crops (that would have been theirs to keep), but in typical African fashion they didn’t think about the future. TIA

“Ick!” I stepped in a huge mud puddle. I stopped thinking for a moment while I focused on where I was stepping again. A few moments later my mind went back to my situation. The past 3 months have been almost stranger than fiction. I was kicked off the mine by armed soldiers who barricaded the mine and eventually stole it from my company. As a result I lost my job. Went back to America for a wonderful whirlwind month of traveling seeing friends and family. Came back to Africa and thought I’d have to say good bye to Congo forever. Stayed in Lubumbashi and there was an attempted coup. It failed, no big deal, but since this is an election year more craziness is sure to follow. Found out most of my stuff was stolen from the mine by my favorite employee who was by far the strongest Christian! And now I find out my projects failed! Not to mention the fact that I am currently walking through the woods in the rain pushing a motorcycle in shoes that don’t fit.

As I kicked down my kickstand and went inside the office for a drink of water I saw the new site director of the new mining company that had bought the concession from the people who stole it from my old company. I met the CEO and he impressed me with his desire to start social programs so I accepted his job offer. I officially start in March although unofficially I started a couple of weeks ago. They offered me a decent salary and more money for projects than I had been allowed before “Things are about to change.” I told myself with a smile. I just have a feeling that this is going to be a great year. My life is ridiculous, but I like it!