In The Moment Of Pain And Suffering
Monday, November 17, 2008
(By John Kim)
“Where was God during the tsunamis in Southeast Asia?”
“What was God doing on September 11, 2001?”
“Where was God when I was going through ______________ [you fill in the blank]?"
It’s a question that most of us, if not all of us, have asked at some point in our lives. Certainly, it is a question that the world constantly asks of our God, this supposedly all-loving and all-powerful Being who seems to sit idly by as countless millions – helpless women and children not excluded – grapple daily with the problem of evil and suffering in our world. Their argument is clear enough: If God is willing but not able to do anything about evil and suffering, then clearly He is not all-powerful. And if God is able but not willing to do anything about evil and suffering, then clearly He is not all-loving. In short, your God is lacking…your God is not God.
So Christian, what say ye? How do we respond to a family member or a close friend who, out of his/her authentic pains and sufferings and hardships and scars of life, turns to you for answers? What do you say?
Well, I for one don’t think we should say much. Really??? But what about those neat memory verses that we have tucked away specifically for these occasions? Is there a time and place for these truths? Maybe. Sure, there may be an appropriate time to quote Romans 8:28 and assure your friend that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Yes, there may be an opportune moment to say of your friend, as Jesus said of the man born blind in John 9:3, “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” There may even come a time to exhort your friend in suffering with the challenge of these words from Job 1:21, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
Maybe. But we probably shouldn’t. Not in the moment of pain and suffering anyway; not when the pain and the hurt can still be felt, because it is that real. The sword of the Word of God can do real damage if not handled correctly or carefully. Then what do we say? What do we do? Well, allow me to propose a verse of the Bible which I believe gives us rare insight into this matter of walking with others through pain and suffering. From John 11:35
“Jesus wept.”
Picture this: The infinite God-Man, the Word of God made flesh, the perfect representation of God revealed to man, the all-loving and all-powerful God Himself……in tears, crying alongside Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus, knowing full well what He was about to do. Think about this! God – yes, the all-loving and all-powerful God who sovereignly rules over His universe at every moment – crying with us in the exact moment of our pain. Here lies the uniqueness of Christianity over all other religious systems: Our God suffered; indeed, our God still suffers whenever we suffer. The word ‘compassion’ literally means to ‘suffer with’. This is our God: “compassionate and gracious” (Exodus 34:6).
Where was God during the tsunamis?
He was there, among those who were suffering.
What was God doing on September 11?
He was crying.
And He still cries with us through all of the real suffering and pain of life.
In conclusion, when a close friend or family member is suffering, let your words be few. Keep those neat verses tucked away for later. Simply come alongside them and suffer with them, as Christ did. Point them to the living Jesus who is really there and crying with them, even as He knows full well what awaits for us on the other side – yes, a place with “no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). This is our God.
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Apologies
(By Ian Smith) - If you know me at all, you’ll know one thing: I am an apologetic person. I apologize for everything and anything. Sometimes it’s a force of habit and sometimes it’s real and genuine. But this got me thinking about the nature of apologizing and what it means. Apologize comes from a Latin word, apologia. The word literally means to give defense for one’s position, giving reasons why you believe or act in a way. You may have heard this word before. The art of defending the truth of the Church is commonly called apologetics. But this got me thinking that we live in a culture of apology, and that isn’t a good thing. We practice the act of giving reasons for everything we do, of giving defense for ourselves. Countries do it all the time. We do things that are wrong and give reasons for it. People do it; we say I did this action because of some reason or another. God demonstrates another way for us to live, a better way, a way that is more real. That is the way of forgiveness.
I think that as Christians we must recognize that forgiveness stands at the center of everything we do. It takes precedence. Christ states in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) that if we remember that our brother has something against us (not if we are angry with our brother) before we offer sacrifices to God, we must be reconciled beforehand. Prior to worshipping and sacrificing we ask forgiveness of each other. We are to be asking forgiveness always, from God and from each other. Of course the best example is Christ himself who asked God to forgive his executors, even though they didn’t ask, and instead of saying “hey, I did these things because I am the Messiah”, his only words were forgiveness. We also have the book of Leviticus, a book that God gives to teach us his ways, to teach us to be holy. When it comes to how God wanted the children of
Now we will ask, as I know I do, do we ask when we have no enemies? What about those I don’t know? Why would I ask them? This is where we may have missed the point; true we could do something wrong, but we could forget to do something we should’ve, we could not have even thought of it, etc. A wiser man than I said: “Forgiveness is so important because it makes us realize, maybe for only one minute, that our entire relationship with other people is wrong. It makes us look and see ourselves as children of God with each other. It makes us see that in a world that is so cold and inhumane.
There is a story told in a popular book about a group of Christians on a college campus. They wanted to do something on campus as an outreach, but couldn’t think of anything. But all of the sudden they came up with an idea: a confession booth. But instead of hearing people confess their sins, they confessed the sins of the Church to other people, and asked forgiveness. It was a real beautiful time on that campus.
Forgiveness is taking the culture around us that makes us cold and indifferent to anyone who isn’t us and saying, hey I don’t love you like I should. It’s saying hey I know I’m not right and acting right all the time. In that we are not only showing love and humility to each other, but we as a Church are being healed, being made new. Imagine how different things would be if instead of giving reasons for what we did, always defending ourselves, we just started asking for forgiveness. Imagine how different things would be if when countries did things wrong they asked for forgiveness instead of just giving reasons. It could go on forever, until we even forgive not only seven times but seventy times seven. It could change the way we are with people forever. Let’s ask God for some courage and follow the example of Christ.
Further reading:
Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz.
Father Alexander Schmemann
“On forgiveness”
“Forgiveness Sunday”
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Covering God, Life and Progressive Culture
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
(By Erica Johnson) - Each and every day, I'm greeted by several forms of media. The radio is on during breakfast, there are countless billboards and signs I pass by on the way to school, and there are always books to read, videos to watch, podcasts to listen to, and websites to visit. Sometimes it can be difficult knowing which ones are worth paying attention to. Here's a hint: if you're reading this article on metroyouthnetwork.com, you probably already know this is a great website with articles talking about God, culture, and the world around us (and where else are you going to find out about the next Prayer and Praise night?). Here's another hint: let me introduce you to my friend, RELEVANT.
RELEVANT is a magazine that I've subscribed to for a while now that consistently delivers thought-provoking articles, news, and music and movie reviews from a Christian perspective. They have a website at relevantmagazine.com that explores God, life, and progressive culture. The articles in the God section urges readers to pursue a deeper walk with Christ. The life section explores politics, relationships, money, and news. The progressive culture section reviews music, movies, books, and poetry.
The multimedia section is probably my favorite on the website. Relevant.tv shows music videos on demand and showcases artists who believe in and profess faith in God (for the most part - be discerning here and check out what the bands are really saying with their music). The Drop is similar, only it highlights new and up-and-coming artists you may not have heard of yet. Also under multimedia is the podcast, which is a rowdy collection of RELEVANT editors who like to talk about random humorous topics.
Relevantmagazine.com is one website worth checking out - it's put out by twentysomething Christians who want to break stereotypes, challenge status-quo and enact change through the media. They're seeking God, living life and striving to impact the world around us.
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On Calling
Monday, November 10, 2008
(By Dave Witthoff) - It’s come to my attention that the current way that we in the Army think about calling may not be entirely helpful. It may in fact, be rather misleading. The idea of calling touches on the presuppositions that all people have about how active God is in the world. Is He actively changing and doing things, directing people’s actions, choices, and influencing them one way or another, or is He laid back after giving us His Word, expecting us to look there for answers. On this scripture gives no cut and dry answer, and so our understanding should not be either/or, but both. God expects us to look to scripture for our direction in life as He orchestrates the events and happenings of the world. But where there are two extremes that need balance, we usually find people that fall to one side or the other. That is what brought about my concern.
In the Salvation Army, at most of our conferences, there’s some point in the meeting, usually after a sermon that went too long, that another officer who was appointed this awkward and traditionally motivated task, will get up and ask for those who feel “called” to come stand up on stage so everyone can look at them. This standing on stage I think is partly to make it meaningful to those who go up, but I think it also gives some accountability. In any case, it’s always the same kids who go up every year, more than half of whom never seem to go to training anyways. So what about their “calling”? Did it just not pan out? Were they never “called” to begin with? More to the point, why does it seem that this language of “calling” evokes a groan from so many? Why is Calling so confused?
The term calling has become mismanaged so that it doesn’t mean what it used to mean, or what we want it to mean anymore. In the past, the term was understood to refer to the desire and guidance of God that directed an individual to pursue a life of service as an officer. Somewhere along the way, the term came to stand for that amorphous, foggy, impulsive, unknown feeling that compelled one to go in for service. The first understanding of calling is Biblical, the second is not. Let’s view Biblical calling first.
When we read the scripture, it is vitally important that we don’t misread what applies to specific people and take it for our own. In that sense, if we want to see how people were enlisted for Christian work, it would be unwise to look to Moses, David, John the Baptist, or Paul for example, to develop a methodology of how people are called to ministry. Their works and lives were specific to their environment and to salvation history. Direct revelation was given to them concerning their life’s work. This is what is unique.
This uniqueness of the Biblical characters makes it difficult to discern how we should understand calling then. If all the Biblical characters have special callings that were received unlike our own, then how do we know what a calling is? But the Bible does not leave us without direction. If we turn to scripture to understand how people ended up in ministry, we find that they were either called by special revelation, or they followed another set of guidelines. In 1 Timothy 3 Paul says that “if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do” (NASB). He then goes on to list character qualifications for such an overseer (an overseer is a pastor/elder/officer essentially). In Titus 1:5 Paul explains that he left Timothy in
From scripture then, we can understand that pastoral ministry is for those who desire to serve in ministry and who are qualified for the office. It takes no gut instinct or subjective feeling, just good character and a desire to do the work. Usually this is understood as an Inward Calling, which is the desire to serve in ministry, and an Outward Calling, the recognition of a person’s character by the local church. This is a Biblical understanding of calling in which eager servants are confirmed by the church to lead and teach the body of Christ.
Now let’s take a look at what calling often means in the Army. How do people in the Army come into full time service as elders (officers)? It seems to me that the main standard that leads a person into officership is a certain feeling. If a person has a feeling, or a compulsion that they should go or must go into training, then that means they should go. It’s even in the language of how we talk about calling. We don’t hear or say all that often “I want the call of officership” or “I fit the requirements of a call to officership.” What we hear said is more disturbing I think. We hear, “I feel called to officership.” Feeling is altogether not a terrible word, if one is referencing passion and desire for ministry (like in Timothy 3), but to often this feeling is not passion and desire for ministry but an unexplainable, inexplicable emotion.
Scripture even speaks against the idea of entering ministry because of a compulsion. Look at 1 Peter 5:1-3:
"Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock."
Here scripture explicitly states that a person should not shepherd the flock of God under compulsion. Frankly that word seems to be at the center of the flawed idea of calling that has so permeated the Army. Young people with strong emotion feel compelled at Youth Councils or Commissioning to go stand up in the front and commit to serving as pastors in God’s church. But the scripture is set against those who come under compulsion. It should be by desire and character.
This revised understanding of calling can go a long way to revitalizing us and our view of training. Too many people, especially young people, that are more emotional, get caught up at conferences and events and end up testifying that they are called to the ministry, only to devalue the meaning of calling when they never enter the ministry. On the other side, people who don’t ever have strong emotions but love working in the church might miss out on so much more, assuming that if they were really called they would experience some great emotional event.
I believe that if we re-evaluated ourselves in light of a Biblical call to ministry we might find that ministry is something we desire, and if a person desires the work and meets the character requirements, then that my friends, is a calling.
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Fair Trade: What'sThe Deal?
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
(Rebecca Lewis) - Free trade is defined as international trade free of government interference. Free trade advocates argue that a voluntary exchange of products meets the demand of justice because each party is left wealthier then they were before as it improves their own lot. It's a give/take situation. A sharing of commodities. It's purpose is to create good relations with other countries and provide cheaper products for citizens.
In 1993 Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with
Over 3 million jobs have been lost since 1994. After NAFTA and other free trade agreements American companies shipped their businesses overseas because it was cheaper for them to ship their products back home due to lack of taxes and cheap labor. This was great for the countries the companies moved into, due to the amount of jobs created for their citizens, but in return caused job shortages in
Not only has free trade cost American jobs and decreased some countries average income but free trade has no standards on the goods that are being provided to us, which means a lesser quality product. Moreover, the countries to where the American jobs are often shipped have no standards for fair labor which means exploitation, unfair work hours and dangerous work environments. For example, workers in
Free trade is not what the standard should be. It has caused more harm than good. As Christians we need to see that this should not be going on anymore and should look into finding something that will help solve the problem. We need to find something that will set a standard that should be the norm that will benefit all parties. One step in the right direction is Fair Trade.
Fair trade standards are met in consideration for the social, economic and environmental well-being of marginalized small producers and do not maximize profit at their expense. This means that workers are paid well and respected as human beings. Justice.
When a fairly traded product is bought, let's say coffee, you can be assured no children worked in the farms, no one worked a strenuous amount of time without breaks, the workers received a fair wage, far above any wage of a non fairly traded product. You can be assured that those workers got to go home at the end of the day and feed their families.
It's not about not buying unfairly traded products anymore. If we all stopped buying them there would be no business, which means no need for workers and then millions of people in other countries without jobs, food shortages and even more expensive products due to lack of supply.
Research free trade and fair trade. There are many arguments for and against each and I encourage you to take your own stance. Look at each candidate’s stance on such things as well, but don't let this be the defining factor of who you vote for. Check out the other issues and pray about it.
For more resources visit these links:
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/123456/711805/
http://www.globalenvision.org/library/15/834
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2008/03/morning-coffe-2.html
http://staff.blog.ui.edu/dnh60/index.php/2008/08/19/wto-and-neoliberalism/
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#trade
http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/JobsforAmerica/trade.htm
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