echoes of redemption

So living in a part of the world where the norms are radically out of proportion can change how I view the world.

Even the basics are drastically different. Most of the world cannot read or write their own name. Much of the world doesn’t have access to clean water. Most of the world is hungry.

I can easily feel guilty about that – but guilt is a terrible motivator and a useless in bringing about change.

I can choose to ignore it – but that’s not the way of Jesus. It would be no better than the rich man who chose himself over others, and in doing so the pathway of hell over the lifestyle of heaven.

Or I can choose to engage. To find a place I can make a difference and dedicate myself to bringing about change.

And that’s why the mission of the Church is so critical to the world. That’s why we need groups of people, living in the image of Jesus, bringing about measurable difference in this world.

Together we can make a difference.

It starts with awareness. It takes risk. It takes decisions that are backwards from what most people in our culture are used to. It takes willingness to pour yourself out.

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.

We are under enormous pressure to produce.

There are bills to pay. Deadlines to meet. Ideas that we needed to have yesterday. And the pressure of living like we do can quick encroach on our spiritual lives.

But spirituality isn’t about doing. Or deadlines. Or continual goals.

It’s about living as God designed us to live. About being.

That’s why God’s name in Hebrew is translated, I Am.

He just is.

And when we take the time just to be, not to succumb to the idols of production and progress, we find ourselves understanding God a little more.

Grow. Move forward. But don’t let those become your goals. Allow God to work through silence. Through pauses. Through the spaces in your life.