Part of me is so excited to come home and see my family and friends. I can’t wait to go to El Paso and eat Mexican food until I have to be carried out. To hear how all my sweet girlfriends are doing at New Years as we meet up for the first time in two years. To meet babies who have been born while I was away. And to share about all God has done in my life and the lives of others.
But today, I don’t want to come home at all. I am ashamed of my country’s behavior and many Christians I know and love who are living and speaking out in ignorance and fear. I realize what I am about to say is bold and outrageous but Jesus, who I have just spent the last year traveling the world with, said radical and crazy things too.
If you reject a refugee you are rejecting Jesus. He told us to love the least of these. Jesus says in Matthew 25 “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Later in that same chapter he says, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
I’ve met those people and I’ve lived with them and loved them despite their differences. If I could I would fill my parents house to the brim with women and children who are now going to freeze to death this winter because countries have become paranoid again after the recent attacks in Paris. And yes there are other people in America who need help. Well my challenge to you is, what are you doing about it? if you are willing to post it as an excuse on facebook, what are you doing about the veterans who live on the street? What are we as a community of believers doing to love those in our community now?
Reading all these articles and posts this week congratulating governors for standing for the American people and their rights has made my heart so sad. What right at freedom and safety should you have over any other man, woman, or child escaping daily violence, execution and slavery?
America was founded as a place of religious freedom escaping the persecution of the Church of England. Suddenly it has become a place of religious persecution, not only toward Christians in recent days but now against Muslims escaping persecution in their home countries.
I visited Istanbul this past August and had the chance to meet a young man from Damascus, Syria who was working in our hostel. He was an attractive 20 something who looked like your average college-aged student, with a T-shirt, jeans and a backwards hat. And he was dealing with this British man on holiday being a total butt head. And he never raised his voice or showed a temper. He was kind and patient with the rude white man. And I was awed. I came back the next morning to compliment him on his composure with that grumpy old man. He was kind with deep brown eyes that had seen horrors I hope I only ever have to imagine. He told me how he worked as the desk worker at the hostel to support his mother and sister who had fled to Turkey from Syria. His father was still in Damascus, unable to escape. Every time we talk about refugees, his face comes to mind. I don’t remember his name but I’ll never forget his face.
People are very brave in their talk about keeping refugees out of our country and keeping our kids safe. Well news flash, it’s not refugees who go in and shoot up movie theaters and schools and malls. It’s white American men who often are racist and in desperate need of mental healthcare. The argument isn’t about a certain race or religious group being dangerous, it’s about ALL men and women being fallen sinful creatures who are selfish, hateful, and depraved. Most of you who post these Facebook statuses about refugees have never met one. I know many, even ones here in Ukraine who have been displaced by war in the East. They have pain of being away from all they know even on the opposite side of their country. You haven’t seen the Syrians and Iraqis and Palestinians dying in the camps just desperate to help their starving, freezing families. I haven’t seen the camps but other racers have the honor and privilege of serving Jesus there and I wish I was among them. We should be broken for people because Jesus is broken for them. On this race God has given me a heart for the refugees from the Middle East and it breaks my heart that I am going home to such a hate-filled, xenophobic environment. I am saddened that we can’t even love our neighbors in America, let alone oppressed refugees.
By rejecting the refugees, we are cultivating a group of Middle Eastern children to hate us because we show them our country hates them. Because the opposite of love and acceptance is hate and rejection.
In Isaiah 1:17, God tells the prophet to ” Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” The Syrian refugees are oppressed. All refugees are oppressed. Isis preys on Muslims ever single day in Syria and Iraq. These people are just as eager to escape these terrorists as we are eager to keep them out of our country.
God is love. If you have his heart, you must have love. Our goal should be to love the refugees. And even as I write this God reminds me that we also have to love the ignorant people who are filled with fear and hate. To love those at home who won’t understand because they haven’t seen the depravity of refugees sleeping in train stations and in parks because they have no where else to go. Refugees who were just normal people like us whose lives were turned upside down by an evil they are trying to escape and stop just as much as us. I have lived a lot of my life in fear and I can tell you it is such a waste. You will miss the rich blessings of God and his goodness because you are too overwhelmed with the fear of the enemy.
We should allow the refugees to escape to Europe and America. Because even if we let in people and they end up doing terrible things, Jesus said to love and pray for your enemies. He said to expect persecution. We are not guaranteed safety or easy times in life. There is a multitude of scripture defending why we should not only accept refugees but Christians should be the most eager and willing to help and love refugees. That is what the body of Christ is about. Love. And sadly many have not shown that in the last few days, and I’m sick of it. But I ask you to pray hard for a heart change about this. Pray you can be blessed with an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Living in fear is not of God and it is not what he has called any of us to. Because if you remember, Jesus came from a Middle Eastern family that was turned away from shelter. And Saul, who became Paul, was a terrorist persecuting and killing Christians. We shouldn’t be afraid to die at the hands of someone evil. We should be afraid of missing God’s call to love our neighbor AND our enemy and missing out on changing a life for the kingdom. They should know we are Christians by our love. You can change the lives of Syrian refugees not only by befriending and welcoming them in with the love of Christ, but showing them healing and freedom through his blood and resurrection.
Love is larger than the walls which shut it in. – Corrie ten Boom
