Nate:
You are right, you are not saddled with lots of responsibilities at this time in your life. You are in an enviable position, one that gives you lots of flexibility and availability.
I also like your focus on systems issues. I have likened trying to live in the kingdom in our culture to trying to keep your footing in a swift current. In the future, God will redeem and reconcile the system. In the present, he uses attentive and responsive followers to bring redemption and reconciliation where they can within a broken system.
I hear what you are saying about the needed system changes, but speaking as someone who finds himself smack in the middle of that system and who is saddled with some prior contract responsibilities, I think we don’t we need to wait to be about kingdom work until we put ourselves in a better system or until the system changes. I think we need to focus on system and environmental changes in parallel with individual and smaller community changes.
My man, Dallas Willard, is fond of saying that you can’t do on-the-spot, what you can’t do off-the-spot, or as I am fond of saying, you can’t give what you don’t got. I think we need to make our spirituality work in some way where we find ourselves. We need to practice sensing the kingdom (God acting) within the system/environment. We need to practice dropping out from the mind and into the heart/spirit where the divine power can gives us everything we need for life and godliness. We can learn to do this here, now. If we can't do it here, we probably won't be good at it in a different system. We have to have something to give.
Given the system we are in (unfortunately both the cultural and church systems), it is not easy to practice compassion, but it most certainly can be done, and we must. However, we will need to overcome some system barriers through some intentional, well-directed effort and a willingness to take some risk. One of the structural barriers is that we have a separation between the rich and the poor. We have metaphorically (and in some cases literally) created fenced in communities. In WLR, we can live our lives without ever having to witness the poverty and violence that are part of the everyday life in large segments of our society. No wonder we are not so good at developing compassion, we never have to have our heart broken. How do we deal with this?
Like you mention, Nate, we can move into a poor neighborhood. A few do this. I think of the Simple Way or the Franciscans, but on the whole, the church has crashed and burned in this regard. I am not sure I could do something like that with kids, given the danger involved. I am also not sure I could do it without some form of supportive community. However, such a radical move is not the only way to show compassion and be involved in the lives of the needy. Mentoring programs can provide an avenue into the poor neighborhoods. Making beds for needy children provides an entry into the homes and lives of the needy.
We can get one of those community garden plots to grow fresh vegetables to give to the poor. However, instead of us doing to work, we can pick up some families, like Stacie and her kids, and tend the garden together, side by side. We could create a safe setting where some real community can happen. During that time, we could learn from them and love on them.
Given the system barriers, this type of brainstorming, effort, and risk-taking will be necessary. If we do, I think we will find the kingdom.
While we plan for the big system change or move, and until that time, let's put ourselves in a position to experience exceptional love and mercy. No need for us to wait. Beauty, justice, relationships, and spirituality are available and present, even in our corrupted system.
No comments:
Post a Comment