echoes of redemption

Changing the world isn’t easy.

Tackling water and water-related illnesses that plague 1/6th of the world is expensive. Helping a single mom pay her electric bill so she can buy groceries is a long-term commitment. Even getting to know someone outside your comfort zone is  a challenge.

But that’s why much of our world looks like hell.

Separation from God.

Emptiness.

Helplessness.

Hopelessness.

But Jesus came to change all that. To reconcile people to God. To bring part of heaven to earth. And he poured himeself out to do it – it cost him everything.

And maybe that’s why so little changes in our world today. We have to be willing to pour ourself out. And when you pour yourself into something you lose a little. It costs time. Profits go down.

It’s risky. It’s subversive to the culture we live in. (And most people think it’s crazy.)

But when we enter in to someone’s life, engage with their problems and carry their burden – that’s when change happens.

Complacency comes when we stop challenging the norms.

It’s easy to forget that waste is a part of daily life. The average American spends more money annually on trash bags than most people in the world spend each year on all goods.

The stuff I need to get rid of the stuff I don’t need is a deeper investment than most people will ever be able to make.

It’s easy to forget when we do buy a trash can, we carry it home in a plastic bag, unwrap it, put a plastic bag into the trash can and throw away the bag we brought it home with.

So the stuff that harms the environment the greatest is the most easily discarded.

It’s easy to forget serving sizes of food have increased over the past 20 years in America. So a cup of coffee could now have 7x more calories or that McDonald’s biggest hamburger patty is 500% larger than the original.

So we’re one of the most out of shape countries in the world.

It’s easy to grow accustomed to violence in our media. So much so, a country that isn’t concerned about showing nudity on public TV became concerned enough about an American movie releasing this week to limit its showing to porn theaters.

Which impacts how we view and react to all kinds of violence – both imagined and real.

And living in a place like this changes my views of the world. About what is normal. About how things should be.

Change isn’t normal. But our world needs change.

So change starts with awareness.

Jezreel seems like a terrible name for a child.

But it was the name the prophet gave his first born. And every time someone heard it they thought of one of the darkest moments in their history. A time when a king had a man killed to steal his family’s vineyard for himself.

A vineyard.

At it’s best, the family would have sown in it for years. And sowing is not a quick process. They would have carefully selected seed, placed the seed in hot water to cleanse the imperfections off of it, moved it into cooler water to fortify and strengthen it.

Meanwhile, they would have been preparing the ground for the seed. Then, with a quick movement of their hand, they would send the seed out over the ground, followed by a swift kick to move enough dirt over the seed to protect it from the scorching sun and brisk wind.

Jezreel would have made everyone think of this vineyard. But God’s intention wasn’t to discourage them. He was going to redeem this time in their history. He was going to use everything they had been through to take them somewhere they had never been.

Jezreel is actually a good metaphor for God.

Because he is one who carefully selects his children, places them situations that are nothing short of hot water – refining and pulling away imperfections. He then builds them us, strengthening them and adding layers to their character.

Meanwhile he prepares a place for them to live as his children – an image of what he would look like on earth. And when the time is right, he sends them into this place, give them enough protection that they can grow and change the landscape of everything around them.

Because in Hebrew, Jezreel means God sows.