Lord, give me Your heart

"In John 13, Jesus knew where He had come from and where He was going to. ... If we know where we've come from and where we're going to, we could spend the rest of our time on earth with a towel around our waist... it wouldn't matter. If we knew where we'd come from and where we are going, we could like happily in obscurity just washing a hopeless old man's feet. ... In order to understand how to minister, we need to know where we've coming from and where we're going to, and then it matters not the tiniest bit whether our ministry looks successful or not; neither do we mind... Our satisfaction is in Jesus' heart." ~Jackie Pullinger

the little girl on the minibus

She couldn’t have been older than 9 or 10, but her eyes whispered the weight of at least four times that many years of life experience.  She took my breath away, the solemness of her old soul looking out so carefully for the well being of a blind mother and a 3-4 year old younger sister.

She did not meet my gaze with her one seeing eye and another which had probably become worn and tired from having seen too much in its short life. In fact, she did not note me at all; so focused was she on the task of caretaker for those both older and younger than she, navigating the perils of public transport with her charges whom she so carefully guided and settled into their seats.

She was unflinching, attentive, and sober… sadness & sweetness mingled with the knowledge written across her unsmiling face that, yet, held no jaded bitterness with a childhood abandoned for the hard responsibilities of life. No resignation nor flickers of anger. Just resolute maturity and… something more… is it hope? Is it determination? I cannot tell, except to get a strong sense that this little girl-woman is a fighter.

Love also now spills out she watches her younger sister, intent on being sure the smallest one of them (who stares unconcerned out the window with the pure innocence of a child’s naivete with life still blessedly in tact) eats a biscuit at the late hour as they travel together under her single, watchful eye. The difference between the two sisters outlook is as striking as their resemblance to each other. 

I long to know this 9-or-10-year-olds story.  I want to greet her, to talk in the span of minutes we will share this space. Then, I am suddenly painfully aware of the world’s and cultures and languages and distance that lie as barriers between us even as we sit with knees pressed together in the crowded seats. She has a story to tell that I desperately want to hear, even as I see it resting there beneath her expressions. I know then, I must write of her… this little girl, who is actually a little woman, in the minibus this afternoon… whom I wish I could have met and known.

I alight first, leaving the little guardian angel with her cares… but have not stopped thinking of her.

building bridges of cultural understanding

"The dialogue between us and our national colleagues is important in building bridges of cultural understanding. It is also important in helping us develop a more culture-free understanding of God’s truth and moral standards as revealed in the Bible. Our colleagues can detect our cultural blind spots better than we can, just as we often see their cultural prejudgments better than they. Dialogue with Christians from other cultures helps keep us from the legalism of imposing foreign beliefs and norms on a society without taking into account its specific situations. It also helps keep us from a relativism that denies truth and reduces ethics to cultural norms."

Hiebert, G. Paul. 1999. “Cultural differences and the communication of the gospel.” In Perspectives on the world Christian movement: A reader. 3rd ed. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, pg 381.

One of the things I was MOST excited about when I was preparing to live and serve overseas was to have God challenge and strip away beliefs I hold which are more American values than Biblical ones. While I can't give you an itemized list of what those are, I can tell you He has been and continues to answer that prayer and reveal those blind spots... via my own time in His word and in other cultures, and via relationships with brothers and sisters of other nationalities. It's a beautiful thing.

However, I don't believe there is such thing as a "culture-free understanding of God's truth."

As believers seeking to faithfully live out the Christian life in our social context, we must be aware that our formation and formulations are not acultural. 

patience

"If I have not the patience of my Saviour with souls who grow slowly;
if I know little of travail (a sharp and painful thing)
till Christ be fully formed in them,
then I know nothing of Calvary love."
~Amy Carmichael

rising to the surface

Amazing what intentional downtime... escape from work... deep conversations with friends who know you better than most... raw & honest chats with God in the silence and space of an empty house... and getting out of your familiar surroundings... will do.

Hopes. Fears. Dreams. Revelations.
Desires that you've pushed away, out of sight.
unbidden... come rising to the surface.

I want to write. But more than that, I want my life to matter. I want to write things that matter.
I want to live... no, truly LIVE...
I want to grow and to cultivate growth... to learn and cultivate learning... to understand and cultivate understanding.
I want my life to communicate value--in everything I say/do--to those who aren't valued. Because God says they ARE valuable.
I want to love well: truly, deeply, fiercely, relentlessly LOVE... each person I meet, in the way that communicates love most clearly to THAT person.

With this reminder from my soul sister: "If your doctrine doesn't border on the heretical, then you don't know the God of the Bible."

And this reminder from the Holy Spirit: "We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people proud. But love builds them up. Those who think they know something still don’t know as they should." (1 Corinthians 8:1b-2, NIRV)

The things that are making my spirit quicken, my mind wrestle, and my heart strive to understand more, deeper... cultures, languages, people, and Jesus.
I have MUCH to learn.

Ethiopia, I applaud you

Ethiopian drivers are incredible! Truly... big truck crowds into your lane almost crushing you. No need to panic. A polite, brief "beep" is all you need for them to apologetically swing back and wait for you to pass. Pedestrian walks out in front of you? It's ok, they have the right of way. Take it in stride, just don't hit them. Give them their space. No traffic light? No worries, there is generosity and grace here. You'll eventually be courteously allowed through, once you allow others through before you. The calm, unfazed, careful, courteous, yet speedy way in which Ethiopian drivers navigate skillfully around this huge city completely fascinates me! It is unlike any other place I've ever visited.