Perspective

We have been talking sometimes outside in the cool of the evening and my brother Ben had some insight that was too good not to share. Here it is:

This trip, like most I’ve been on, has taught me so much and opened my eyes to so much more that it is almost overwhelming as I try to process it all. This latest insight or revelation or whatever is no different then the rest, and I am still in the midst of trying to work through it, trying to figure out what it means and how it changes the way I see the world and how I’m supposed to live in it.

Anyway, with that said, here’s what I’ve got. Uganda is a ravaged country, a country torn to shreds by decades of struggles. From the Keramojong to the LRA, from Obote to Idi Amin, between horrific famines and unbearable floods and, of course, the AIDs epidemic it seems there has been no respite for these poor people. And the thing is, now I’ve met these people. I’ve looked into their eyes and I’ve heard their stories and been broken by them, but then I come to the end of the day and, as I lay in dark and let my mind step back, zoom out just a little, I look to the north and the west and all around really,and I see Sudan and Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Another step back revels Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza. One more and I can see Kosovo, Bosnia, and even North Korea. I realize that its every nation, every people everywhere and all of the sudden the words of Paul are ringing in my head “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood…”.

The enemy is not Joseph Koni or the LRA. The enemy is not the Janjaweed militias. The enemy is not ruthless dictators, rebel factions or even Islamic extremists. The enemy is the same as it has always been, “…the powers of this dark world … the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms". (Eph 6:12) It becomes so obvious that every person who has ever been victimized, abused, or neglected, they all share one common enemy. But the thing about this is that we, the children of light, already have the means to defeat this enemy. We hold the keys to absolute victory in our very hands!

I know that none of this is earth shattering insight or some brand new epiphany but I guess I have just never put it into words before. The thing that gets me though, the thing that I am still trying to sift through is that we, the people with the cure are called to listen and respond to the cry of the sick, but that cry is defining, and the first problem is that we have so completely insulated ourselves from it. We go from our well insulated homes with their double pained, sound deadening windows, to our offices with their acoustic ceiling tiles or into our churches with there immensely expensive sound systems and we never get into any situation were we might be exposed to the wailing of the people who suffer under unimaginable oppression.

The next issue that arises is that the cry is so loud, so over powering and engulfing that if we do expose ourselves to it; it threatens to smother us and bury us completely. It comes from all sides at once and from all corners of the globe. How can we, a people so small and so timid, even begin to face such an insurmountable task? And so we don’t even try. We go back to our insulated lives and pretend that the cry never reached our ears. We may toss up a prayer now and then but we continue to bide our time until its our chance to get out of this mess and on to heaven.

But what good is that? What about “thy kingdom come” now, here, in this time, in this place, on this earth “as it is in heaven?” We have to step out now. We have to expose ourselves and let ourselves be broken, knocked to our knees, and from that place we have to look up and see that our Father is weeping, that His heart is broken and He so desperately wants things set right. He wants to use the Body of Christ, that us, the church, to heal and restore the world. But He will still be there, in the midst of it, in the midst of us, through us, with His power and His love through our willingness.

I guess, in the end, it’s not so complicated. Its just going to take everything we are and so, so much more of everything He is!