Pictorial Prayer...and Praise – 04.25.2010

PRAISE that Frank (from the last pictorial prayer), was able to come to Kampala to be evaluated at a good clinic and that his kidneys are showing signs of recovery. Praise also, that God connected us with a pediatric nephrologist (!!) in the US who has offered to help manage Frank’s case long distance. Simply amazing.

PRAY that Frank’s health will continue to improve and that we will be able to monitor him well while he is far from Kampala.

PRAISE that God kept my roommate Sarah and I safe after our taxi was in an accident last Friday. On the way to the airport our taxi hit a bicyclist and shattered the windshield. In these situations angry mobs form quickly, even though the bicyclist was alive, and not severely injured. Because we’re white, the crowd wanted us to take all the responsibility and payment of everything, even though we weren’t driving. God provided other transportation quickly before things escalated. A great praise that everyone involved was okay.

PRAY that we would continue to be in the center of God’s will as we live and move about in Uganda.

upside-down

"So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the (slave) trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition," William Wilberforce, British politician and leader of the abolitionist movement in the late 1700’s.

Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave from Maryland, described slavery as a life of "perpetual toil; no marriage; no husband, no wife, ignorance, brutality, licentiousness; whips, scourges, chains, auctions, jails and separations; an embodiment of all the woes the imagination can conceive."

“There are more slaves today than ever before in human history…the worldwide statistics are staggering, but in the United States alone, an estimated 200,000 people are living in slavery.” (http://www.callandresponse.com; http://slaverymap.org)

16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:16-23)

I imagine you were with me when I started – hear the word slavery and your mind immediately conjures up stories and images of the civil war South, plantations filled with Black slaves, terrible injustice and oppression. My mind is immediately taken back to living room of my elementary school days, watching video after video of the series “Roots” with my family in wide-eyed shock and horror. Summed up, slavery = bad.

What on earth then is the BIBLE doing talking about slavery? I mean, whether you believe the Bible to be the inspired words of God or just a book of ethical guidelines, why is it telling us we are slaves? And furthermore, if I were a person considering following Christianity, I would not find the idea of being a “slave to God” a very warm and welcoming invitation.

I’ve been thinking about this idea a lot lately after reading a blog post called, “Rethinking Slavery,” and I’ve been bothered. Since this is what the Bible, the book I believe to be God’s words to me, is saying, I decided to do some sleuthing.

Just what did Paul mean when he wrote those words? Was slavery a good thing back in those days?

Paul lived in the Greco-Roman world. In the Roman Empire, slavery was not only an accepted and important institution, but there were more slaves than free people living in society by the time of Christ. People became slaves because of war, poverty, debt, or by birth. However, culturally during this time the Master-slave relationship was often affectionate and it was seen as a moral obligation to one day free your slaves. A slave could also earn his freedom or a free person could pay the price of freedom for him. But even when a slave was freed, he maintained a special relationship that showed obedience and honor to his old master (like going to the master’s house daily to say “Good Morning” and “Good Night.”).

So that’s where Paul was. Where are we?

If I believe in the Bible (which I do), then:

1.) I also believe that I couldn’t escape slavery because I was born into it….as a slave to sin. Just like slaves in the Roman times, since I was born to my parents (who were slaves to sin, and their parents slaves to sin, and their parents, etc, all the way back to Adam and Eve..), then just by “legal standing” (not even my actions) I was already in slavery at birth.

2.) I believe that Jesus bought me out of this slavery. He paid the price for my life by his death on the cross. His life for mine. Again, by “legal standing” He became my new master. I became a slave to God, to live in His way of righteousness.

I went from being born into slavery to being bought into slavery.

“Consequently, slavery is an inescapable concept. There are two kinds of slaves in the world – slaves to sin, and slaves to obedience. There is no third slave master, nor is there a status of non-slavery. There is no neutral ground from which a person can stand and gaze upon the two camps and remark, “those people are slaves, but not me.”

So….If I believe in the Bible (which I do), then:

3.) I am still a slave; a slave to God, a slave to righteousness.

Is that bad? Well, no, because I’m told that as a result I get eternal life and righteousness. But I still don’t like being called a slave.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision… but born of God. John 1:12-13

And then, BOOM! God calls us “sons” and “children.” I was confused about this. How can God call me His slave one minute and His child the next?

There was another situation within slavery in Roman times, and this one intrigues me; a slave could actually be adopted by the master and have an equal inheritance with the natural sons. On the flip side, in that time people argued whether a son had any more rights than a slave – he still had to obey his father and received punishment for wrong.

So, I went from being born into slavery, to being bought into slavery, to being made a child.

“God made us His slaves in order to free us and adopt us as His children.”

This is crazy and radical and doesn’t fit into our concept of reality, does it? It was the only way.

http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/christia/library/slaves-christ.html

http://www.stlukesrec.org/SlavestoObedience.htm

Pictorial Prayer - 04.19.2010

Hope Alive! has 3 sites in Uganda – Kampala (the capital city where I live), Gulu (Northern Uganda), and Masaka (Southwestern Uganda; pictured above). I am in the process of figuring out how to best help our Hope Alive! kids who live outside Kampala (what we call “up- country”) when they have medical problems, especially because the medical facilities in these places are often poor and the distance to travel there is far.

Tomorrow I will be traveling to Masaka to see Frank, a 6-year old boy who is sick and has been diagnosed with kidney problems.

Please pray not only for little Frank’s health but also for wisdom to know the best way to get medical help to our “up-county” kids.

inertia

inertia |iˈnər sh ə|

noun

1 a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged.

2 Physics a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.

I went on a retreat last month where the each person in the group was asked to write down and discuss his/her "life goals." We were asked, "do you know what your 10 year plan is?" At this, I sort of guffawed. 10 years? Shoot, I start feeling anxious when I think 1 year down the road.

I don't think I'm alone in this...I actually think this is a "virus" of my generation; you know, the general reluctance to commit to something permanently, reticence to communicate true heart-felt desires, and anxiety to say, out loud, what kind of a person I want to be.

While we long for recognition as unique and special we often freeze in inactivity (or rote routine) for fear that we might fall (fail, yes, but also fall - fall from the good graces of our parents, from popularity, from wealth and success, from comfort...fall and hit the ground hard.).

My own plan-phobia is summed up pretty well by this quote:

Am I to be praised for my stickability or criticized for my lack of ingenuity? -Alistair Begg

Too often, I'll admit, that when faced with a big decision, I'd rather just sit on my couch and do...nothing.

The storm is coming but I don't mind

People are dying, I close my blinds

All that I know is I'm breathing now

I want to change the world

Instead I sleep

I want to believe in more than you and me

But all that I know is I'm breathing

All I can do is keep breathing

All we can do is keep breathing now

-Ingrid Michaelson (lyrics from "Keep Breathing")

Hmm, that sounds familiar. Maybe it's not just me.

grounded

So why this aversion to having a plan, a commitment, a vision for my life? Possibly: fear, laziness, status-quo, boredom...

Deeper though... I think my own reason has more to do with Guilt and Fear.

Guilt: that if I commit to this plan for my life than I will have to say No to all those people and possibilities that may ask for my attention.

Fear: that if I tell you who it is I want to be, I will have many fingers pointing in my direction if I fail. I become accountable (oh how awful for you, I say sarcastically to myself).

flight plan

I was listening to this message by Rob Bell and he was talking about the way Jesus lived his life, in total devotion and commitment to his one goal - fulfilling the will of God through his death on the cross. Because Jesus had a compass and orientation for his life he was able to say No to things and people, even when they were good things and legitimate needs. Bell says,

Jesus is willing to go against the expectations of the crowd in order to be true to the few things he is pursuing. He doesn't let what everybody wants direct his path...Jesus says no because he's already said Yes...You can't say No until you've already said Yes to something else.

I've been thinking on that idea a lot lately and how radically freeing that can be for life. Where I live in Uganda, needs are bottomless and opportunity to help and do good are endless; I tend to either feel overwhelmed by the their immensity or frenzied as though I must give myself in every direction.

When I look at the truth though...I see that I am God's child and He has given me a vision for my life. I can let out my pent-up breath knowing that if I continue to say Yes to what God has called me to, I can say No guiltlessly to what does not align with that vision.

Soren Kierkegaard said,

A saint is the person who can will the one thing.

flying

Someone gave me this example:

When a plane is flying at its high cruising speed and altitude it only takes slight adjustments of its ailerons, elevators, and rudder to change the entire direction of the aircraft.

At lower speeds bigger adjustments must be made to affect the course of the plane.

On the ground with the engines off, it will take a crane to move that plane an inch.

Of course we are not mere machines; we are thinking, breathing, feeling humans with spirits and souls, but the analogy is clear. If I sit in my corner and wait for a shining light and booming voice from heaven it will be much harder for me begin making those decisions to trust and serve God. When I begin moving and doing and serving (even if I'm not 100% sure what the next 10 steps will be) it suddenly becomes easier to be attuned and obedient to God 's leading.

But isn't our tendency toward inertia just amazing?

turbulence

So how do I decide what that "one thing" should be?

In his book "Crazy Love," Francis Chan says,

Most of our thoughts are centered on the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become... But, the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it's about eternity, and nothing compares with that. God is not someone who can be tacked on to our lives.

I am convicted but encouraged at the same time. Over and over I circle back to this point - that I must first say Yes to God in my life; He is my primary allegiance. Of course God cares about things like jobs, school, spouses, and exercise...so long as they don't eclipse His own centrality, He may even want us to say yes to these things in our lives. I think with practice it becomes easier to recognize the goals and aspirations that fit with what it means to say Yes to God in your own life (without the fear of comparison - "but that's not what it looks like for so-and-so").

landing

Now for the scary part...what did I come up with? Do I have that vision for my life?

It's a work in progress, but I have a draft and, quite honestly, I'm vacillating whether I want to share it...to speak it out loud, for you to hear, and openly compare to the actuality of my living...

So I will, for this reason - imagine if we could all share in honesty our vision, who we want to be, what we want our lives to be characterized by...it certainly carries an accountability most of us don't want, but also a freedom; for me to live in my calling (and not yours) and to forgive you because we are both made of the same fallible material but reaching for eternity.

So here is what I wrote for my life, my vision:

I want to be a person whose life is

Characterized by: the same prodigal love GOD has shown me, and

Driven by: a desire to see GOD glorified.

May I be:

radical, never stagnant

proactive, not reactive

flexible, never rigid

lovable, not self-sufficient

courageous, never fearful

teachable, not arrogant

peaceable, never divisive

open, not self-righteous

selfless, giving all I have and am for the Glory of God.

So from my friend, Rob Bell,

May you have "the pursuit of a simple disciplined focused life in which you pursue the few things which God has for you and may you be like Jesus, able to say No because you already said Yes."

Pictorial Prayer - 04.07.2010

please pray for Rwanda (Uganda’s neighbor to the South). Today, April 7^th, marks the anniversary day of the genocide that took place in the country in 1994 during which time it is estimated close to 1 million people were killed. Rwandans will be going days of mourning for the victims of the genocide.

This man shown above survived the genocide as a young boy but now lives without most of his family. Emotional, psychological, and spiritual scars and trauma are deep for Rwandans of all ages.

Please pray with the Rwandan church that Christ will be the Hope of Rwanda; that God’s power that raised Christ from the dead will enable each believer in Rwanda to bring Hope to the people of their country.