In all my fews years on this earth, I have found only a few pictures of what the true heart of Christ is all about. This is one of them. This picture was taken during the protests in Egypt. Egyptian Christians surrounding Egyptian Muslims so they can pray in peace on the streets. The Egyptian Christians also provided newspapers and clothes for the Egyptian Muslims to kneel on. Beautiful is the only way for me to describe it!
Spend some time contemplating the meaning of love.
Alone with none but thee, my God,
I journey on my way;
What need I fear if thou art near,
O King of night and day?
More safe I am within thy hand,
Than if a host did round me stand.
I pray these encourage you to realize the ever present God is with you today. Journey in confidence and peace.
Rereading one of my all time favorite books (The Road of Life: Reflections on Searching and Longing by David Adam).
“If you feel that God is far off, remember feelings are liars. ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ You are in the presence of God no matter where you are. You are in the heart of God and God seeks to dwell in your heart…You belong to God and in a wonderful way, God belongs to you.”
Take comfort and hope today that God is nearer to you than you realize.
“The giving of God that populates our past and the reliability of God that marks our future makes life in the present different.”
- Walter Brueggemann
We stand at the foot of the mountains-the Rwenzori Mountains to be exact. Our past journeys have been full of companions that have walked with us and us with them. We hear the echos of the faith of those that our journey has intersected. Echos that whisper ever so softly into our ears and hearts words of love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind…love your neighbor as yourself.” Words of mercy and compassion. “What does God require of you: but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Words of questing and adventure. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…” And words of life. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
We stand at the base of the mountains and we know these voices will always be with us. The panoramic view before us is breathtaking and inspiring but also daunting and unknown. Do we step forward into a land and into a people whose culture we know very little about?
What we have experienced has deconstructed most everything we have learned in our western (American, modern, industrialized, church, etc.) culture. We have encountered a culture which does not have a moral foundation. BUT, they hold respect as a cultural must. They value peace/harmony above conflict. They value community above individuality. The last one (in my estimate) being the most important. Everything is done in and for the sake of the community, whether that be your immediate family or your tribe. Individuality is not valued. Coming from a culture which idolizes our individuality (even in our theology), this has been an eye opening experience. Let me give you an example. When we are sick in our western culture, what happens? Most likely we will stay home. We do not want anybody to visit us, we just want to be alone and let our bodies work through the illness. In the Ugandan culture (particularly the Batooro culture), when someone is sick, it is expected for people to drop by and visit. If a person does not then he/she is seen as not valuing the community or friendship. If the sick person refuses the visit then they are seen as not valuing the community or friendship. So when someone is sick, expect visitors to drop by and express their concern and love for you. Quite the opposite to what I am accustomed too.
Another example would be the concept of time. In our western culture, we value being on time to appointments and meetings. I can’t count the many conversations I have been a part of discussing how people do not value something because they do not seem to show up “on time”.
Time is money…
Time is precious…
Time is important…
We have our days scheduled (over scheduled most of the time). We get frustrated driving on I-5 because the traffic will make us late for whatever. (I know because I have done it many times.) Our lives revolve around time.
Here in Uganda, time is not valued. The event is valued over time. Two Sundays ago, “church” is supposed to start at 10 AM. We started at 11 AM because that is when most everyone showed up. So instead of ending at noon, we ended about 1:30 PM. Now to a westerner, how ANNOYING would this be? Extremely! But let us challenge the priority of time. Say we started the worship service at 10 AM like we were supposed to. We would have been worshipping with ourselves. What does that communicate? Time is more important than people. Is that really the message of Jesus? One might even ask some of the Ugandans where they were and why they were not “on time”. Their response may be that they were greeting someone on the road. Again, in a culture that values community, do you berate the Ugandan for not being committed or question their devotion to God because they are late? I think the Apostle Paul would say something along the lines of “BY NO MEANS!” The Ugandan was acting appropriately in the culture–he/she was valuing the community by greeting the person on the road.
But let us not deceive ourselves. Uganda is not a bastion of holiness. The evil in the culture is so real, you can almost reach your hand out and touch it. Witchcraft is rampant. Deceit is valued. Selfishness is cherished. Greed runs rampant. The list could go on.
Let me tell you a story. A few days back a Ugandan man was doing something (nobody knows quite sure what) on Lake Saaka. For those that have been here, that is the lake that almost completely surrounds Camp Saaka (where Faith Quest is held). He drowned. His body wasn’t found for 3 days. Here is where the story gets intriguing. Lake Saaka and the land where Camp Saaka is is said to be the place where the Bachwezi spirits are supposed to live. Tradition says that the people would sacrifice a life each year to please the spirits or the spirits would take a life. The death was perceived that the spirits took the life of this man (who is rumored to an excellent swimmer) for this year. As you can see, the deception of the Deceiver is strong. He has had a strangle hold on the culture for many centuries. This is a land that calls evil a trusted friend.
The view from the base of the mountains is breathtaking and inspiring but also daunting and unknown. We stand at the base looking up, not because of the terrain but because we know only God can lead us in the direction of the future–a future that may possibly mean new companions. Our present is different because of our past (including our limited experience in Uganda) and future. We view things differently. So we stand at the base, in the present, waiting…
Henri Nouwen once said. . .
You are my child.
You are written in the palms of my hand.
You are hidden in the shadow of my hand.
I have molded you in the secret of the earth.
I have knitted you together in your mother’s womb.
You belong to me.
I am yours. You are mine.
I have called you from eternity and you are the one who is held safe and embraced in love from eternity to eternity.
You belong to me. And I am holding you safe and I want you to know that whatever happens to you, I am always there. I was always there; I am always there; I always will be there and hold you in my embrace.
You are mine. You are my child. You belong to my home. You belong to my intimate life and I will never let you go. I will be faithful to you.
The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God’s voice. Where somehow you can claim that long before your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your school, your church touched you, loved, and wounded you—long before that, you were held safe in an eternal embrace. You were seen with eyes of perfect love long before you entered into the dark valley of life. . . The spiritual life starts at the moment that you can go beyond all of the wounds and claim that there was a love that was perfect and unlimited, long before that perfect love became reflected in the imperfect and limited, conditional love of people. The spiritual life starts where you dare to claim the first love—Love one another because I have loved you first.
Snap! The sound of the camera invades the environment of the picture I have just taken. I love to take and look at pictures. Moments in time captured and treasured. A picture to be looked at over and over again so I can relive that special moment.
As I think about the kingdom of God, words seem very inadequate for me. So, I must rely on the pictures of life to help me grasp what this elusive kingdom of God is all about.
The first picture is of Quinton. Quinton is a young boy in elementary school. He lives on 51st Street in Tacoma, Washington. He has two sisters. His father is in construction. His mother stays at home. He is much like any little boy—full of energy, always on a great adventure and good at Madden Football. He has a mohawk (it was blue at one time). He dresses in hand-me-downs. As my youth group began to paint Quinton’s neighbor’s house, he was always there to help. The minute we would drive up, Quinton comes running out of his house with expectations of helping us. As the days pass, Quinton and I begin to develop a friendship. We talk about what fun things he did the night before, school and family, all the while expletives rolling off the tongue of his mother. It dawned on me one day, the kingdom of Heaven was being brought near to Quinton and Quinton was eagerly receiving it. He was experiencing a place of peace through the camaraderie of teenagers and adults painting a house. This snapshot of the kingdom of Heaven provides images of love, acceptance and peace.
Another picture came unexpectedly. The location was a community fair. This was not a ordinary community fair. A blowup jumping toy and face painting were the only “fun” activities for kids. The main portion of the fair was designed to help a community of people who had been displaced learn about the resources that were available to them. As each displaced mother, father, child and grandmother entered into the fair, they were greeted with love and respect. As they were handed a bag full of school supplies, a list of what schools were actually open, the anxiety of being displaced began to slowly be replaced by love and support. Each table they encountered brought new information about health clinics, job opportunities, educational services and emergency services. As the stories of surviving a hurricane and the worst national disaster in American history were told and retold, a strange thing began to occur—the sounds of laughter and hope began to fill the air. As we conversed with individuals and families, listening to the stories of survival and hope, an overwhelming awareness of the kingdom of Heaven began to settle in and make itself at home. What we thought would be a day that we would bring the kingdom of Heaven to people turned out that they were bringing the kingdom of Heaven to us. In this particular snapshot the kingdom of Heaven was full of hope, laughter, restoration and love.
These are just two of the snapshots God has graciously allowed us to participate in. These two snapshots have opened the eyes of our faith to see the kingdom of Heaven in the pictures of life. Snap!
