A good part of our time in South Africa has been spent in the township of Mamaloude. It is all too familiar as it looks like a very large version of the Nepali slums. For the last week and a half my team has sat squished in a shipping container full of students who are eager to learn basic life skills so that they can escape from lives that are filled with crime, poverty, and rape. We have spent a couple afternoons at a tiny church in the township where we help feed the most joyous little kids who don’t get enough to eat at home. Once their bellies are full they then have homework time and group activities to help with their learning. And we have plenty of time to love on them as they crawl all over us.
The further I walk this journey out the more my heart breaks. Yet I know a hope that overcomes it all.
At home I was blind. I had never really experienced true poverty, and even though I saw pictures and heard stories on the news none of it felt real. But now as I sit half way across the world it is as if I have new eyes. Not only do I see the brokenness that surrounds me in countries that have nothing, but I also see the extreme brokenness of my own country that thinks it has everything. We are one of the wealthiest countries, yet behind this wealth there lays tons of brokenness, poverty, and hurt. So many of us call ourselves Christians, but are we really living lives that imitate Christ? As I dig into the next 8 months I know that this is something I will be writing and sharing more on…but for now I will share this truth:
God has not called us to be comfortable.
There is a small revolution happening across the globe. Amongst the noise of our religion, wars, and materialism there is a small whisper for something so much bigger, something full of the grace and love of Jesus. I just finished reading “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne. If any of these words resonate in your heart or stir a though of what does it look like to really live for Jesus, I urge you to read the book (then share it with your neighbor). It has changed my life, and given words to the things floating around in my head.
God likes to reaffirm things in my life. He will give me a piece of wisdom and then will reaffirm it through His Word, conversations with other people, or as in this case a book. If you read my blog titled “Be Still”, I mentioned a calling God placed on my life to do ministry at home. Well my goodness did He reaffirm this calling through Shane’s stories. (More to come on that later as I fully develop God’s vision…)
This is just the beginning of God’s story for my life. I have seen though that there is something more then our American version of Christianity, and I will hold onto it with all my might so that through many little acts of love people may see the light.
After my new friend Christina from South Africa finished sharing some amazing stories she says to me in the most joyous voice: “God is crazy. And I never want to stop being crazy for Him.” And I say AMEN!
Some food for thought:
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Mathew 7:13-14
I tell you the truth it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Mathew 19: 23
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied….But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry…. Luke 6: 20-21, 24-25
