Help from above

Among many people, Christians don’t have the greatest reputation. A cross-section of the church would likely reveal the same about people as a cross-section of society would. In the church there are slanderers, gossips, liars, perverts, drunkards, hypocrites, and worse, just as there are outside of the church. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as Christianity takes all, accepts all. It should not anger or upset people to see that there are bad Christians out there, because we aren’t an exclusive club that takes only the very perfect. God will take you how you are, where you are. There is no line level of holiness that one needs to meet, no criteria that must be fulfilled in order to be a part of the church. In Jesus’ own words: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor–sick people do.” (Matt 9:12).

But for some reason people do get angry that people in the church are exactly the same as people outside of it. Christians are, and arguably should be, held to a greater standard than those who do not know Christ. But how you see this standard, and it being enforced on the Christian, can make matters better or worse. Go into most any church and you will hear a salvation message akin to what I said earlier: “God will take you how you are, where you are.” Whether you are evil, or just plain stupid, God loves you and accepts you. Respond to that message, and become a Christian, and in most any church you will then hear a message akin to “you aren’t good enough! Watch out or you will lose your salvation!” This is nothing new, as Paul timidly puts in Galatians 3:3: “How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” I like the wording of the God’s Word translation: “Are you that stupid?” It’s the old bait and switch. You’re promised an easy yoke and a light burden (Matthew 11:30), but instead what you receive are high standards and expectations. If you were at all like me, then all through school you were told that you ‘weren’t living up to your potential’, do you really want to keep having that curse upon you? That you just aren’t good enough and you have to keep trying, trying and trying? Let it go!

In my own life, as I became more and more convinced of Christ, I lost some friends. Some of my friends, who were mainly non-Christians, thought that I was far too “Christian” to be friends with, and so rejected me. Then many of the Christians who I’d encounter thought that I was far too “heathen”, and so rejected me. So there I was, not rejected by all, but enough that it stuck with me. In honesty, sure, I was rough around the edges, much like I am now. If you just judged me by a quick encounter with me you might think “this guy isn’t going to make it” (as if it was a race). And so some of my Christian peers tried to ‘help’ me, telling me what to do, and, from an objective standpoint, bullying me in an effort to conform.

Take for example, worship music. For the benefit of anyone who is not familiar with church, a church service often runs like a tv show. You have the intro music, the show, and then the shorter outro music. This intro and outro music is worship music, where people sing and dance to whatever extent depending on their church background, as worship to God. The aim of it is for the individual to get a close connection to God. Sounds good (and it is), but I’m not a little fella, and I’m very blokey bloke. Back then I was even less little, and so I just did not sing and dance. I felt stupid doing it, and the more movement I made the more those around me would get knocked about. You can say “get over yourself, it is about God”, but that’s a waste of words, and is ignorance trying to masquerade as piousness.  The point was, I felt stupid doing it, and therefore it did not get me close to God, it only got me red in the face.  Instead, I would feel closer to God by studying about God. By reading the Bible, reading theological books. But this was not enough for others, who would make me feel inadequate, almost to the extent of not being a real Christian, because I would not jiggle around for Jesus. So I would try to mimic them, and feel stupid. I’d try to ‘worship’, and would be even more focused on what I looked like. So while their intentions may have been good, the more they pushed me, the further I stepped away, and it became an inward struggle of “if being a good Christian is being like you, then I’d rather not.” And so, when the music played, I stood there, thinking about ways to skip to the end of it.

Fast forward to today. Do I sing and dance like the rest of them? No, but I do it to the best of my ability for where I am right now, and I do it from the heart. What changed? I stopped struggling. I stopped trying to conform. Practically speaking, I focused on Jesus. I listened to preaching that excited me, preaching about miracles, about healings, about salvations. I read books about the character of Jesus, about the heart, the love of God, and one day I noticed that I was engaging in worship music, and had been for some time, and loved it! This is grace!

Many people confuse grace with mercy. Mercy is what God gives us in response to our sins, but grace is the power that He gives us to live, and to change. We become ‘good Christians’, not by our own effort, but by God’s power within us. And it happens without us even knowing about it.

I ride a motorbike. One of the extra things that you have to pay attention to in Thailand are the roads, specifically, pot holes. If I see a pot hole, I have to actually look away from it. I have to force myself to do this because by looking at it, by focusing on it, I move towards it, and I hit it. The same thing applies to becoming a good Christian. Now, this term, ‘good Christian’, is, I admit, a useless term. But what I want you to read it as is becoming like Christ. How do we do that? The same way I miss the pot hole. We focus on where we want to go. We focus on Jesus. We focus on His love. We focus on what He has done for us. We focus on how great He is, and, hey! Look at that! We have just moved closer towards being like Him!

The church is always going to be full of people who are unlike Christ. Because God will take you how you are. But He gives us His grace, which is not a lack of right and wrong, but is His power that will take us further than we are now. Those people who made me feel inadequate early in my journey should have known that it was their role to encourage me, not to change me, to tell me more about Jesus and His greatness, not more about me and my failings. But just as I had my shortcomings, so too did they. It is not my role to change them either, but it is the role of the Holy Spirit.

The Christian life is effortless. It really is. Sure, you may be called on to do some hard things, make some hard decisions, struggle sometimes, but it is a journey built upon relationship. As you fall deeper and deeper into that relationship, that relationship will change you, until one day you too are surprised at something you can suddenly do. Simple, isn’t it?

The Old Order

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelation 21:4 (NIV)

Facts about Child Abuse

[Via: Online Nursing Programs]

I came across this graphic the other day that highlights some facts about child abuse.

Some points that I would like to highlight:

- Neglect is the most common form of child abuse.
- Most cases of child abuse do not involve a man. 54% involved a woman only, and 24% involved a man and a woman.

In 50 meters the world changed

Yesterday I traveled up to Mae Sai to travel across the border into Burma and get my visa re-stamped for another 90 days. I would have saved time and gone a week or so ago while I was visiting Mae Sot, but the border there has been closed due to nearby fighting on the Burmese side.

This has been the second time that I crossed from Mae Sai, so I kind of knew what to expect, but that didn’t make things any less shocking.

Gone were the masses of street children, left were just a few particularly hungry kids. Where did the others go? I try not to think about it, lest I come up with the worst possible scenario.

Minutes across the border a new record was set. Last time, I was shocked when a street vendor offered me a girl to buy. This time, not even five minutes across, five different taxi drivers offered first, to take me to see the sights, and second, to take me to buy a girl. That is a record that I wish never to be broken, even though it is not a record that I esteem. But I have grown, for the better I cannot be sure, as last time I did not know how to react, this time I quickly said “no”, and strongly walked away, rage and pain in my heart.

After walking around the markets, seeing a few people begging, but many people trying to earn money, we decided to go back to Thailand. I bought a drink, and walked across the bridge. A young boy ran up to me and reached out for the remainder of the drink. I gave it, and he ran off drinking what was basically now just slowly melting ice. I then made the foolish mistake of taking a 50 baht note out, and giving it to three kids who promised to share, but did not. One ran away with it, the other two looked to me for more.

As I went into Thai immigration, they disappeared, but, looking up to the Thai side, there they were, waiting, having snuck in through under the bridge. Annoyed, I told them that I had given them money already, that it was up to them to use what they were given to help each other. What spirit did I talk by?  But they insisted, begging me to see things how they did, begging me to help them fill their stomachs. So I told them to follow me, and I’d buy them food.

As we walked down the main street of Mae Sai I then noticed a little girl, maybe 3 years old, walking alongside me, her palms together. But she never looked at me. Examining her clothes, I bent down to talk to her. She wore no shoes, a tattered shirt and pants, her mouth missing teeth, I asked her if she was hungry. A shy smile come up on her face. So I told her to walk with me until we came to a fruit vendor. I asked what she wanted, and she asked for a Mandarin, so I bought it, handing over a 100 baht note. She was so happy, but it was not enough to me. As she began to skip away, before the shop keeper had gathered all my change, I stopped the girl, and bought her some watermelon too. Before she left, I bent down and told her “remember this always, Jesus loves you.”

Taking my change, I walked further on with the two boys, who seemed to want something a bit more sustainable than fruit. Coming to a stand that sold fried chicken, they asked me for some. Ask, and you will receive. I bought them a piece each, and asked the shop keeper if she had sticky rice, then bought them more than even I could eat. Before they left I told them the same as I told the little girl. “Do you know who Jesus is? Today I have fed you because He feeds me. Never forget that He loves you, seek Him.”

At this time, to my side then walked an old man, a beggar leaning on his cane, whom I had walked past a few steps earlier. He looked at me with his gaunt look, and I said “why not?” And bought him some too. Was I taken advantage of? Who cares? When parking the car cost me more, who really cares? The kids had all gone, but the old man and I walked in the same direction for a while, and as he turned to go his way thanked me again, and I told him also as to why I cared enough to feed him as his stomach growled.

When heading across the border from Mae Sai, you walk across a bridge. In that 50 meters the world changes. In that 50 meters desperation rises. Sure there may be some who try to take advantage, but look a little closer. The men who offered me a girl to buy. It would be easy to hold anger in my heart against them, but if they had the opportunity to be a well paid lawyer, which do you think they’d really choose? The kids who followed me to the point of stalking, I had already given them money, my duty was done. It would be easy to have lashed out in anger, telling them “NO! Leave me!” But would they really risk making such a comparatively large foreigner angry, would they really risk sneaking across the border, if they were not desperate for food?

To stand by and watch as evil is done is to share in its guilt. Let nobody ignore the plights of others, but understand that every war is a civil war; that every death is a death in the family; that to live without fear is not a privilege but a right; that to love your brother is to love yourself.

I had learned some lessons from my last time over one year ago. Then, I left completely heart broken, both at the situation, and my failure to quench the hunger of one little starving girl. I still remember her. I think about her often. How she did not understand Thai, or English. So I just had to say to her “sorry” as I walked off, head hung low.

This time I took money with me. Not to buy things, but to just do something. Smaller notes, not large. Then yesterday I learned another lesson, not to give money away at first, but to buy food for those who’s words were being drowned out by the growling of their stomachs. Next time I will learn more lessons. And I hope never again, to feel the same way as I did when I turned from the small, frail, starving girl just over one year ago.

The Proper Timing

I was sitting in class the other day as the topic of Christ’s baptism was being discussed. As the gospel records, Christ went to John the Baptist, and was there baptized by him, at which time the Holy Spirit came down from heaven in the form of a dove and came to rest upon Christ. A voice inaugurated Christ, and His ministry began. This occurred when Jesus was 30, so to fulfill Jewish custom. The point to be had was that Christ did not simply scrap all human tradition.

But as I was imagining all this in my head, suddenly it struck me. Christ was 30 before he started his ministry! Think of it from the perspective of the Jewish people. Right or wrong, they were expecting their Messiah to come and rescue them from bondage under foreign oppressors. At that time, they were under Roman occupancy, and had been for many decades prior to Christ’s birth.

We as people tend to rush things. We want them now. As a missionary, I want to perform my set task now. Not in the “proper timing”, as to me that is simply a way of saying “later” (and we all know that later never comes). As a conscionable person, I want oppression in the world to be eliminated now. To me, the right time is now. Likewise, the Jews of ancient Israel were praying for, longing for their coming Messiah, desperately seeking rescue from the oppression they were under.

Now, we can definitely take away from this whole thing that sometimes the answer to our prayers is closer than we realize, but from another perspective, think of the Jews as they were under foreign rule. What would they have thought, had they known that their Messiah had been around for many years already, but had not begun to act simply so that tradition would be fulfilled?

I can only guess how they would feel from an Australian perspective, and that wouldn’t be very understanding. But if I could take any important lesson from it, it would be the importance of proper timing. Revelation of Jesus’ identity was not received (by most who ever received it) until towards the end, and so had He begun sooner, most would treat Him on account of His age the same way those of His home town treated Him on account of their familiarity (cf. Mark 6:4 and surrounding passages). So it is valuable to understand the importance of proper timing.

I guess I can have a little more patience…