Another interesting thing about
being in the Philippenes is the fact that there really is no escape from
the poverty. People live in homes that are not their own, scrounged
together from scraps they find around them. The landowners in these
areas tear down the homes once every 6 years to prevent people from
taking advantage of a law that would give them ownership of land they
live on for 7 years. With this system in place the scraps they use to
make their homes become more valuable than the walls themselves.
I keep thinking as we’ve walked these streets how the concrete
footprint I saw in the ground can also be a metaphor for our life
struggles and story. How often do we fall into the lie that our past is
an inescapable defining aspect of who we are? Once we make that one
misstep, the concrete hardens around it and we feel trapped, much like
these people are trapped into the story they seem to be living. The
interesting thing, though, is despite their circumstances, there is joy
and generosity here we haven’t seen in many other places. In Australia,
there was a feeling of hopelessness and despair in situations where
often the things people had were not taken care of. In Manila, these
people have very very little, but what they have is taken care of to an
extreme, and they live with much the same joy and interest in life that
you might find in the average middle-class person in the U.S. It’s very
common to go into someone’s home here and see obviously old furniture,
that is treated with extreme care, toys and stuffed animals on the top
shelf, some wrapped in plastic to protect them, floors extremely clean
and clothing washed and hung with care.
So the question is, who’s really
trapped? Jesus walked with many people in poverty and had compassion on
their needs, commanding us to care for the poor. But he didn’t solve
poverty. He gave joy and hope to those who lived in difficult
circumstances. Jesus empowered the poor without indulging their self
pity, while calling to account those responsible for showing compassion
to those in need. What a different way from how we, and often our
government, think about things today.
And what if we translate this to the heart? It’s true that we can’t
go back and undo the past. But it can be redeemed. Our circumstances are
inconsequential to God. Our sordid pasts are His playground. He rewires
and reworks the tendrils of our decisions and failures and creates
something beautiful where misery once reigned. Like the Filipino men and
woman who find joy in the midst of hardship, our lives can be
testimonies to the joy, hope, and life of the kingdom, no matter what
the circumstances or lies against us may be.
I’m learning a
lot about this and I may have to write a part 3 to process some of
these thoughts, but I do know this, when we are affected by things we’ve
done or things done against us, there is a God who can turn concrete
back to clay, and clay into flesh, and that’s the God we all so
desperately need.
