The War to End All Wars

Photo by Stephen Alexander Yang

Here's a list (incomplete) of the messes stinking up the world right now:

• NATO killing Libyan civilians with a bombing raid
• New Syrian protests, police kill 19 people
• The U.S. government nearing shutdown because our leaders can't do math
• Civil war killing hundreds of people in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
• Israeli missile strikes kill yet more Palestinians in Gaza

I won't bother to link these, because you'll just get overwhelmed, like I did.

And these are just the headlines. We have the continual crises in Japan (tsunami, near nuclear disaster), Mexico (drug wars killing more thousands) and Sudan (violent partition). When does it end?

It doesn't. Because we're not just sitting here among many little wars. We're sitting in the middle of the greatest of all wars, between those in heaven and those destined for hell. But right now, still in his violent death throes, Satan is making the most of his opportunities to steal, kill and destroy.

Jesus told us not to lose heart -- despite the headlines. It's hard sometimes to believe He's still in control. But He is. And the more violent the world becomes, the more worried we know Satan is.

Keep praying. Keep hoping. Keep believing in Jesus. He's the only hope we have, and one day He will make all things right and new.

Finding Hope in Slums

Read this latest article on www.goreachglobal.org and tell me there's no hope for the world's poor:

Tea in the Mountains

Got to visit a couple the other day in the foothills of the Himalayas who have been missionaries in India for a long, long time. They are an extraordinary couple who pray and pray and pray for others passionately and often.

They have a patio that overlooks a scenic ravine -- God's Cathedral, as the husband puts it. Such is the impact that this couple has made for Christ in their hometown, that he said he could be paraded naked through town to mock him as a follower of Jesus, and he is confident that a host of local believers would follow him in the humiliation as a show of support. He was being facetious, but it's probably true.

Over tea, they told us of God's saving power in people's lives -- the kind of power that releases people from fear of and possession by demons. They've seen it. It is a very, very real part of life in India. 

To have their faith, their testimony, their prayer life. That is the life we all should want as followers of Jesus.

Page 1 | How to Write about Africa | Granta 92: The View from Africa | Magazine | Granta Magazine

Page 1 | How to Write about Africa | Granta 92: The View from Africa | Magazine | Granta Magazine

This is one of the funniest pieces of satire I've read in a long time. Feel free to laugh out loud.

small

Had a great talk with my friend, Eric, Saturday night about the concept of small.
I can't think of one society in this world that equates smallness with greatness. But Jesus did. He told us point-blank that the least in His kingdom would be greatest, and that those who drive for first place would find themselves at the end of the line.

Take a look at the picture. The words "precious," "cute," or "sad" may pop into your head when you see this boy. But what about "great" or "enviable"? This kid lives in a slum in India, where 40 percent of the world's poor people live. Do you think he thinks of himself as great or enviable?

I think Jesus does.

Jesus chose the small and the unworthy to do his work during his time on earth, and he still does. However, when we Christians in America think about being effective for the kingdom, we think big. We're addicted to big -- big stores, big cars, big plans, big bang for the buck. Small doesn't suit us. Small isn't worthy of our attention. We don't like being small, we don't like being thought of as small, and we don't do small.

But Jesus does.

Jesus said that his kingdom (the worldwide community of Jesus-followers) is like a mustard seed, which is about a millimeter wide but grows to a height of 3 to 8 feet, depending on variety, soil, etc. Jesus also compared his community of followers to yeast, a single-celled fungus that does its work slowly but steadily in all kinds of roles, from making bread rise to fermenting wine to decomposing fallen fruit.

Nothing about mustard seeds or yeast is impressive. They are small, insignificant-looking objects. They don't look nearly as strong or capable as bricks or blocks of stone. But Jesus didn't compare his kingdom to big, impressive-looking things, did he? He placed great stock in the small -- good thing, too, or else all of us would be on the curb.

The next time you think about making a big impact for the kingdom, don't make big plans. Think about finding a small place in God's big story. Let him do big. Comparatively speaking, we're all just mustard seeds waiting to be planted somewhere useful.

The Poor are People

Easy Answers

I've had a lot of people come up to me since I returned home from India and ask me in all sincerity, "So, how was your trip -- good?"

It truly was -- but I don't like leaving it at that (and I usually don't). I don't want to say, "Yeah, it was good," as if I went fishing up north or took a weekend vacay with my wife. It was a trip to India to see amazing work among the poorest of the poor, work that gets a lot of financial support but not a lot of attention or in-depth thought from people here.

The thing is, it deserves a lot of in-depth thought. Easy answers, like "It was good" or "Yeah, God showed up" don't seem to cut it. I think sometimes we want the easy answers rather than the full answers, because the full answers require us to hit "Pause" on our lives long enough to think about uncomfortable things. It's hard to find time for that.

Dealing with the poor and foreign cultures and God's work there requires a lot of thought about what causes poverty and how that foreign culture differs from my own and how God is reaching into that culture with his transforming love. A lot of times, those thoughts need to be refined and re-thought, just because of my own ignorance or new information that trumps the conclusions I came to before.