We’ve been in Greece a little over a week now, and I’m no expert on the refugee crisis. I don’t fully understand all the in’s and out’s of the Turkey-EU deal that turned refugee camps into detention centers (prisons, essentially) overnight. I don’t know how to win a war against a regime whose ideology sees their own destruction as fulfillment of their cause. I don’t know what to do with thousands upon thousands of Syrians whose homes are now destroyed.
And if we’re honest, this is one of many crises in the world. It’s not the first. It won’t be the last.
I’ve been asking God to help me see this whole situation as he sees it, to feel about it the way he feels. From this prayer-pursuit, I’ve come away with several conclusions:
My sense of injustice is not greater than God’s. The Syrians are my fellow-man. But they are God’s creation, made in his image. His love for them is far greater than mine ever can be. Not only that, the members of ISIS are his creation, made in his image. That image has gone horribly awry, to be sure, but they are still my neighbor whom I am to love.
God has been enduring these sorts of injustices and oppressions throughout history. Whatever pain it brings to my heart, his pain is far deeper and has lasted far longer than I can begin to understand.
The big question we always ask, but why? Why does God continue to allow this sort of thing in the world? He could end it right now if he wanted to, couldn’t he? Doesn’t he want it to end?
Yes.
But God is patient.
He is patient with the sins of humanity so that all those who will believe will come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9-10 says, “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare.”
Justice IS coming.
For now, all the universe must wait, we and the Lord must endure, so that GRACE may have it’s full effect for eternity. Verse 13 – “But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides.”
One day, when the time is right, Jesus will come back. He will make all things right.
What then, are we to do today?
Peter gives us that answer as well: “Therefore, dear friends, since you are waiting for these things, strive to be found at peace, without spot or blemish, when you come into his presence… be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on that eternal day.”
We are to live holy lives, firmly grasping truth, and growing in grace and knowledge of Christ.
So I will get up and spend time with the Lord in the morning before we head to the refugee camp.
When we get there, I will listen to a man tell me he translated for the U.S. Army for 10 years while we occupied Afghanistan while he and his family are living out of a tent. I will tell that same man with as much grace as I can that they are being told to move in with two other families in a more crowded area to make space for more families to come.
I’ll pick up some Iraqi kids and spin them around while they wait to be given a place to sleep for the night.
I’ll spend the night in the clothing tent to yell at kids who try to break in.
I’ll pray for the people I meet, my fellow volunteers, and the situation at large.
I’m only here for 2.5 weeks, and I only have two hands. So for those 2.5 weeks, I’ll do my best to be Christ’s hands for a people without a home, a people on the run for their lives. I’ll strive to rest in the promise that God will bring people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to saving knowledge of Christ, and that one day Christ will come back and establish his reign as king. I will humbly obey the sovereign One of the universe, who rules all things according to the counsel of his will.
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“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.” And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!”
-Revelation 21:1-5
