four zeros
Four. Followed by four zeros.Over 40,000 suicides happen in the US each year. And so many questions come with that. The economy? Disenfranchisement? Social pressure? Social media? Yet the underlying reality remains – to take one own’s life means that there is a deep dissatisfaction that seems to have no way out besides death.
And we all experience dissatisfaction, yet so many of us have different coping mechanisms – relationships, pleasure, false gods. But in the end, do we not find ourselves in the same position? For all worldly sources of satisfaction, even universal sources are finite, bound, and will come to an end.
What hope is there but Christ? I pray that the refreshing, ultimately satisfying drink of the blood of Christ sustain me, sustain you, sustain us until His Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
(Source: The New York Times)
good intentions & greed
A wise saying, attributed to anonymous, rephrased:
There are very few people who intentionally do evil; most people believe in their good intentions.
I don’t think Hitler thought he was doing something evil. I don’t think Pullman thought he was being authoritarian. I don’t think ISIS thinks that they are morally reprehensible. This is the crazy thing about defining good for ourselves – without a moral standard, everything is good.
Yet the moment that we think, we are the only ones who understand and that our decisions, however harsh, are for the best of the other – we have made ourselves God. Or a parent.
We have defined good for the good of others but all we’re really doing is practicing greed.
Greed to pad our own pockets. Greed to fill our emotions with feeling right. Greed to consume the energy, thoughts, and life of another for our own purposes.
Let us not be so obsessed with perfection to discard the messy world that God saw and said was good.
freedom isn’t enough
But to walk and flourish in freedom.
An alcoholic can have 1000 days of being sober, and the next day freedom means nothing in front of an empty bottle. Freedom without the walk and flourish is like a man being released from prison only to relapse. To simply set a man free from a system of slavery, wipe your hands, pat yourself on the back and say “good job” – is not love.
The Good Samaritan doesn’t pass over the victimized man, but recognizes the trauma. He doesn’t simply say, “let me go get some help.” He takes care of the unjustly persecuted man man by tending to wounds and bringing him back into society. Freedom for the victim requires coming back into society.
To walk free requires reintegration.
The Good Samaritan goes another step. He pays the innkeeper without any desire for a return. He partners in the restoration of injustice by paying back even though he did not personally participate in the act of injustice. He understood this: that man is bound to every other man – for if one suffers, we all suffer.
This is love. For Christ was crucified and resurrected not that we might pay Him back, but because He loved us.
To flourish requires reparation.
(Source: biblegateway.com)
pittsburgh: violence | prosperity
My city, my city! How I mourn your broken walls of dreams shattered in the ground. Hope lost, Life forlorn. How I mourn your walls built of speeding cars separating and segregating race, class. Will we not respond to the call of the age? Or will we miss the opportunity until the next cycle? I pray that we stop our generational curse. Let this be our time of repentance.
- Welcoming neighborhoods: let us build bridges across communities, let us welcome one another into our communities to live, work, & play
- Affordable housing, livable wages: let us provide opportunities for people to live in provision
- Celebration of creativity: let us celebrate and provide resources to empower the creativity of one another
- Equal voices: let us uncloset ourselves from any cloisters of power and invite each other to the table to listen, share, and learn
Useful Reads/Listens:
"The great evil of American slavery was not involuntary servitude and forced labor; the great evil of American slavery was the narrative of racial difference that we created to legitimate it. There was an ideology of white supremacy that we made up to make ourselves feel comfortable with slavery."
— Bryan Stevenson
zoot suit, god bless america
The more digging, the bigger the graveyard is. During WWII, racial attacks occurred in Los Angeles against Latino, African, and Filopino Americans and immigrants. Zoot suits were worn often by youth and became the target for the attacks occurred by the very servicemen who had sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Even in the midst of the greatest war in human history, America still held on to racism and naming non-European peoples as the enemy. What difference was democracy from fascism, for what hope was there for non-”Aryan” peoples?
God bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.
How difficult it feels for me to sing such a song for a country with such great sin. But this is my prayer:
God bless America,
Land that I sojourn and have been called to love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Despite her affair with violence.
As Hosea was to Gomer, do not leave this land!
Through the night with a light from above
Cast away all darkness that evil cannot hide.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the cities, soaked with blood.
God bless America, my Babylon.
(Source: Wikipedia)
dirty water
I guess we add Flint, MI to the list.
According to local officials, about 40% of residents are below the poverty rate. Fifteen percent of homes are boarded up and abandoned. Weaver says the city of 100,000 doesn’t even have a grocery store. And now its residents don’t have clean water either.
Welcome to America.
“I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.- Amos 5:21-24
I hate, I despise your rhetoric. I take no delight in your protest of using lands that you don’t own. Even though you tithe you withhold basic resources to whole cities to save a penny, I will not accept them. Your desire for peace is twisted by your desire to be comfortable, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your segregated Sunday service. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, that my creation in Flint, MI might have clean water.
(Source: CNN)
caring for refugees
Praise God! The evangelical church continues to grow and learn that silence is not the answer, that political affinity is idolatrous.
Critical moments like these are opportunities for us to be like Jesus, showing and sharing his love to the hurting and the vulnerable in the midst of this global crisis. Thus we declare that we care, we are responding because our allegiance is to Jesus, and we seek to be more like him, emulating his compassionate care for the most vulnerable.
May the church continue to pledge allegiance to Christ and not to political leaders, to the Kingdom and not to America, to love and not to fear-mongering.
colombian human trafficking
Lord, I bring before you the people of Colombia. I pray for the healing of the land, that women and children being trapped in sex trafficking will come to an end. I pray for the families, torn apart by kidnapping or even by betrayal. How can an uncle, father, brother sell their own niece, daughter, sister into slavery? Lord, where is your justice?
I pray that you show mercy and love to your daughters; I pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ in Colombia would not be afraid to speak out and display love. I pray for the women who have been exported globally, that they would be reached out to in their own language and experience your healing and love. I pray that great reconciliation could come for these women.
May you bring the traffickers to repentance. May you bring the sex tourists to repentance. May you bring the government to repentance. May your glory and power be made so evident.
Some resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Colombia
https://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/report-reveals-extent-of-human-trafficking-in-colombia
intervarsity: black lives matter
I am, beyond proud, to be a part of an American Christian organization and movement that is willing to make a statement in light of God’s power and not stay silent. We must all count the cost to following after Jesus – for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, it was making the statement and claim that “black lives matter, too; black lives matter, finally” in front of over 16,000 student and ministry leaders, live broadcast to thousands more, by a black woman with full permission to bring her culture and prophetic voice as she lovingly called the American church to repentance. The result was loss of money and support from former major donors and supporters of the ministry. The result was joy and tears as people came to repentance. The result was the explicit welcome and love expressed to fellow black brothers and sisters. The result was a watershed moment for American protestant evangelicals.
I praise you, Lord! How thankful I am that I got to stand on holy ground, to be a part of this sacred moment.
The video of the talk by Michelle Higgins can be viewed below: