Tonight I am going to have a little soccer reunion match followed by a Chipotle birthday party dinner with friends and family...and the other night I randomly scribbled down some of my reflections as I hit this milestone of old or middle age as I turn 40 on Tuesday...here they are unfiltered...most of all I am grateful at this time for Jesus, family, and friends...and all three of them have truly been beyond my wildest dreams and continue to be so in my life...
1. There’s no book you can keep studying and growing to love more deeply except for the Scriptures
2. Going to a major league baseball game with my dad, with my brother, with my friends, with my son is something I could do every day for the rest of my life
3. Summer days at the pool with my kids are the perfect way to spend Chicago summers
4. When you receive an impossible vision and then have the faith to chase it with all your heart, that is when God shows up big time
5. There’s no place better to grow up as a sports nerd than Detroit
6. Sharing an idea with someone else is a joy, a privilege, and often the very best thing I can do for someone else
7. Students are capable of doing life and world changing leadership tasks when adults empower and release them instead of limiting and making them wait to be fully ready to serve God
8. Having a remarkably fun and deeply spiritual and personally caring group of college friends lays a foundation from which one can chase one’s dreams knowing that there are people who will deeply believe in you in all you do
9. Soccer connects the people of the world and draws us together from literally every corner of the planet
10. Being in the mountain peaks of Colorado allows one to see and meet with God in a spot and to have a two-way conversation truly unique to that very spot on the planet
11. Reading the words of others can fill and inspire your own soul to incredible levels of passion for the things that make your heart jump and skip
12. Doing more work compared to spending time with my wife simply isn’t a fair fight…Ingrid wins hands down every time because there is no one who I’d rather be with and who makes me more like God created me to be
13. Spending time talking about life and faith and anything else with another brings joy and pleasure to my soul
14. Being on a lake in MN with family in July is truly a place of joy and peace and contentment
15. The golf course is a remarkable place where you can enjoy great conversation with friends and do an athletic thing in the beauty of creation
16. There is no greater joy for a teacher and mentor than when your former students do things you could never dream up or accomplish yourself
17. The marriage of two Christ followers who love each other deeply is something you never get tired of being a part of
18. God has given me the deepest of friendships with those a generation ahead of me, my peers, and those more than a decade or two behind me in years, as age is blown away by the realities of Christ’s presence in both of our lives
19. SportsCenter has been one of the most important inventions of my lifetime
20. Life where one only has relationships with people just like oneself is stale and growth-inhibiting
21. Being discipled at an early age is a blessing of immeasurable value
22. There’s always more to learn every single day
23. Having siblings you love being with makes life much richer and holidays highlights of the calendar year
24. Life on this side of eternity will not be everything we want it to be
25. Investing your resources in the development and salvation of a life, a family, a community, a nation is the best investment you can ever make
26. We are blessed to be a blessing to those who need to be blessed
27. To those whom much is given an awful lot is required and expected
28. Africa is a continent that is filled with amazing people, remarkable potential, unreal beauty, unbearable suffering, needs that can and must be met, and a spirit that you won’t find anywhere else in the world
29. I think I’ve traveled enough miles in a 15-passenger van to circle the globe 3 different times
30. Studying the life and ministry and words of Jesus inspires me to live in such a way that I try to emulate each and every thing that He did
31. The generation of students I have gotten to know will not leave the earth the same as they found it…they will make it better and more like God intends it to be like
32. Listening to podcasts while running is a truly sacred time in my life
33. The least in our world have made my life so much richer than it was when I wasn’t in relationship with the poor and oppressed in the globe
34. Brokenness humbles you and causes you to be shaped into the person and carry the character God longs for us to become
35. Being a dad of a girl is the greatest privilege and most remarkable life calling I have ever experienced
36. The support and example of Christ following parents who celebrate the use of my gifts and passions in my life has been and continues to be the thing that has enabled me to pursue God’s best for my life
37. Being a Christian means that I am called to bring the hope and life of Jesus into the culture and lives of those all around me and that being a minister of the Gospel means that I must announce and physically bring the reality of the Kingdom of God to this earth in this day and age
38. Writing is therapeutic and joy giving to my spirit and soul
39. The power of friendships and the blessing of real community are what have made my life truly something even better than what I could have dreamt of or believed possible
40. After the first 40 years, I can’t wait to see what the next 40 will bring
Friday, August 8, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
A Believer's To-Be List by Philip Yancey
In 10 days, I turn 40...and I am thinking about that "second half" of life...and I loved Yancey's thoughts about how he was going to live and what he was going to be as he turned 50 himself...I like these ideas as guideposts for the next 40 years...a great list of nine life philosophies...
When I turned 50, I had a complete physical checkup. Doctors poked, prodded, x-rayed, and even cut open parts of my body to assess and repair the damage I had done. At the same time, I scheduled a spiritual checkup, too. I went on a silent retreat led by a wise spiritual director.
In those days of solitude, I pondered what I needed to change to keep my soul in shape. The more I listened, the longer grew the list. Here is a mere sampling, a portion of a spiritual action plan for my next 50 years.
Question your doubts as much as your faith. By personality, or perhaps as a reaction to a fundamentalist past, I brood on doubts and experience faith in occasional flashes. Isn't it about time for me to reverse the pattern?
Do not attempt this journey alone. Like many Protestants, I easily assume the posture of one person alone with God, a stance that more and more I see as unbiblical. The Old Testament tells the story of the people of God; Jesus' parables unveil the kingdom; the epistles went primarily to communities of faith. We have little guidance on how to live as a follower alone because God never intended it.
Allow the good—natural beauty, your health, encouraging words—to penetrate as deeply as the bad. Why does it take about 17 encouraging letters from readers to overcome the effect of one that is caustic and critical? If I awoke every morning, and fell asleep each night, bathed in a sense of gratitude and not self-doubt, the in-between hours would doubtless take on a different cast.
For your own sake, simplify. Eliminate whatever distracts you from God. Toss catalogs, junk mail, and book club notices in the trash. If I ever get the nerve, my television set should probably land there as well.
Find what Eric Liddell found: something that allows you to feel God's pleasure. When the sprinter's sister worried that his participation in the Olympics might derail his missionary career, Eric responded, "God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure." What makes me feel God's pleasure? I must identify it, and then run.
Always "err," as God does, on the side of freedom, mercy, and compassion. I continue to marvel at the humility of a sovereign God who descends to live inside us, his flawed creatures. "Quench not the Spirit," Paul says in one place, and in another "grieve not the holy Spirit of God." In so many words, the God of all power asks us not to hurt him. Do I show that same humble, noncoercive attitude toward people of whom I disapprove?
Don't be ashamed. "I am not ashamed of the gospel," Paul told the Romans. Why do I speak in generalities when strangers ask me what I do for a living and then try to pin down what kind of books I write? Why do I mention the secular schools I attended before the Christian ones?
Remember, those Christians who peeve you so much—God chose them too. For some reason, I find it much easier to show grace and acceptance toward immoral unbelievers than toward uptight, judgmental Christians. Which, of course, turns me into a different kind of uptight, judgmental Christian.
Forgive, daily, those who caused the wounds that keep you from wholeness. Increasingly, I find God uses our wounds in his service. By harboring blame for those who caused them, I slow the act of redemption that can bring healing.
My spiritual checkup offers one clear advantage over my physical checkup. No matter what I do my body will continue to deteriorate, but, spiritually I can look forward to growth and renewed vigor as long as I listen and then act on what I hear God saying.
When I turned 50, I had a complete physical checkup. Doctors poked, prodded, x-rayed, and even cut open parts of my body to assess and repair the damage I had done. At the same time, I scheduled a spiritual checkup, too. I went on a silent retreat led by a wise spiritual director.
In those days of solitude, I pondered what I needed to change to keep my soul in shape. The more I listened, the longer grew the list. Here is a mere sampling, a portion of a spiritual action plan for my next 50 years.
Question your doubts as much as your faith. By personality, or perhaps as a reaction to a fundamentalist past, I brood on doubts and experience faith in occasional flashes. Isn't it about time for me to reverse the pattern?
Do not attempt this journey alone. Like many Protestants, I easily assume the posture of one person alone with God, a stance that more and more I see as unbiblical. The Old Testament tells the story of the people of God; Jesus' parables unveil the kingdom; the epistles went primarily to communities of faith. We have little guidance on how to live as a follower alone because God never intended it.
Allow the good—natural beauty, your health, encouraging words—to penetrate as deeply as the bad. Why does it take about 17 encouraging letters from readers to overcome the effect of one that is caustic and critical? If I awoke every morning, and fell asleep each night, bathed in a sense of gratitude and not self-doubt, the in-between hours would doubtless take on a different cast.
For your own sake, simplify. Eliminate whatever distracts you from God. Toss catalogs, junk mail, and book club notices in the trash. If I ever get the nerve, my television set should probably land there as well.
Find what Eric Liddell found: something that allows you to feel God's pleasure. When the sprinter's sister worried that his participation in the Olympics might derail his missionary career, Eric responded, "God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure." What makes me feel God's pleasure? I must identify it, and then run.
Always "err," as God does, on the side of freedom, mercy, and compassion. I continue to marvel at the humility of a sovereign God who descends to live inside us, his flawed creatures. "Quench not the Spirit," Paul says in one place, and in another "grieve not the holy Spirit of God." In so many words, the God of all power asks us not to hurt him. Do I show that same humble, noncoercive attitude toward people of whom I disapprove?
Don't be ashamed. "I am not ashamed of the gospel," Paul told the Romans. Why do I speak in generalities when strangers ask me what I do for a living and then try to pin down what kind of books I write? Why do I mention the secular schools I attended before the Christian ones?
Remember, those Christians who peeve you so much—God chose them too. For some reason, I find it much easier to show grace and acceptance toward immoral unbelievers than toward uptight, judgmental Christians. Which, of course, turns me into a different kind of uptight, judgmental Christian.
Forgive, daily, those who caused the wounds that keep you from wholeness. Increasingly, I find God uses our wounds in his service. By harboring blame for those who caused them, I slow the act of redemption that can bring healing.
My spiritual checkup offers one clear advantage over my physical checkup. No matter what I do my body will continue to deteriorate, but, spiritually I can look forward to growth and renewed vigor as long as I listen and then act on what I hear God saying.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
HIV Is Incurable, So Don't Stop Caring by Kay Warren
I am now more than a month away from Africa and I am finding myself feeling more distant from Zambia, more immersed in American culture, and sometimes wondering if maybe it's time to take a break on all this poverty, this AIDS, this Least stuff...after all we've done more than almost anyone I know haven't we? And some days I want to just enjoy things here without feeling conflicted all the time...why do I wonder what my African friends would think when I walk into our new church building for the first time? why do I get a little squeamish walking into the Apple store literally humming with everyone pulling gadgets off the shelf? why do I fell guilty worrying about the stock market and my investments here when a US dollar is worth 100 billion dollars in Zimbabwe? And then Kay Warren reminds me of what is true in my life and what causes the discomfort and concern even when I am thousands of miles from Kakolo Village...it is simply that I am on a journey of responding to AIDS, to the needs of others, to living biblically with my resources, of caring when it seems others might be losing interest because there are still incredible needs, AIDS is still real, and the call of Jesus on my life in relationship to the needy here and in Africa simply will not and must not lessen or go away till my days on earth end here...may we have the courage and faith to be in it for the long haul and not stop caring today and tomorrow and next year and for a lifetime...
Recent research has changed the AIDS headlines, but that shouldn't matter to the church.
At first glance, a comment this week from the head of the HIV/AIDS department of the World Health Organization seems to indicate that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is all but over. In an interview with London's Independent, Dr. Kevin De Cock said, "There will be no generalized epidemic of AIDS in the heterosexual population outside Africa."
Coming on the heels of the UNAIDS report in November 2007 that revised the estimates of those infected with HIV downward from 40 million to 33 million, one could conclude that HIV is no longer a humanitarian crisis.
Not so. As De Cock goes on to say, "AIDS still remains the leading infectious disease challenge in public health. It is an acute infection, but a chronic disease. It is for the very, very long haul. People are backing off, saying it is taking care of itself. It is not."
To me, the larger questions are not about numbers or categories — how many people are infected, or whether more homosexuals or heterosexuals are likely to become infected. The reasons I became an advocate for people with HIV six years ago are just as valid as they were then. Not much has changed.
I can think of several compelling reasons why the church of Jesus Christ must care about people with HIV and AIDS whether they're straight, gay, old, young, victim, victimizer, African, Asian, Indian, Latino, or Caucasian. The categories are irrelevant to our call to care.
The most important reason is for the church to care is that it is completely unexpected. When was the last time the church cared about a sexually transmitted disease? Historically, we haven't done a very good job of teaching healthy sex and sexuality, so it isn't surprising that we don't want to talk about HIV and AIDS.
You can't talk about HIV without talking about sex! Because it is a sexually transmitted virus, the stigma is profound. Internationally and in my Southern California backyard, people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS can face divorce, beatings, job loss, rejection, loss of friends, discrimination, and violence. I could fill pages with the tragic stories of men, women, and children who have endured the painful stigma associated with HIV.
Unlike malaria or tuberculosis (which can be cured with $20 worth of medication when caught early enough), HIV is incurable. It is ultimately a fatal disease, ravaging the immune system of the infected person, leaving them vulnerable to opportunistic infections that a normal immune system could deal with.
One piece of good news amid the bad is that HIV is treatable. In the United States and in other developed nations, where life-saving medications are readily available, an HIV positive individual can expect to live a relatively normal life. People in developing nations do not fare so well. Without access to these "wonder drugs," life expectancy after diagnosis can be three to five years.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, I asked my oncologist how I got cancer. Did I do something wrong? Was it genetics? Should I have eaten more broccoli? He told me he had no idea why I got cancer. HIV is different. We know how it is transmitted. That mystery was solved more than 20 years ago, and in the process, we also learned it is almost 100 percent preventable.
The toll HIV and AIDS exerts does not end with claiming the life of the infected person. Children whose parents die prematurely face a bleak future, easily becoming HIV statistics themselves, thus repeating a vicious cycle of infection and death.
If you knew there was an incurable but preventable and treatable disease that brought shame and stigma, created millions of orphans, decimated families, and jeopardized the hard-won development gains of dozens of the nations of our world, wouldn't you care?
If you're still not sure, reluctant to give your heart and your help to those with HIV and AIDS, take a look at Mark 1:40-42 (NIV). A leper, widely assumed to have secret, unconfessed sin, braved the crushing stigma and fear his illness created to find Jesus. So ashamed of his condition, he approached our Master on his knees, begging to be healed. Jesus could have turned his back on the man, shouted accusations at his sinful state, refused to even speak to him. Instead, the Bible says he was "filled with compassion." He reached out his hand, touched the man, and healed him.
This story never fails to instruct me, to move me. Jesus had the perfect opportunity to ask this man how he became ill, but he didn't. He just helped him. I don't think it's wild speculation to assume that the man's spiritual leprosy was healed that day as well. Jesus models for us how to approach people with the leprosy of our time — HIV and AIDS. As we care for their bodies, care for the orphans and vulnerable children left behind, care for the spiritual wounds that lie hidden deep in the soul, categories and numbers become people.
People Jesus loves. People Jesus died for. People who will never know there is a Savior unless our biblical worldview includes a willingness to ask the larger questions.
Kay Warren, author of Dangerous Surrender, is head of the HIV/AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church. In late June, she was part of the official U.S. delegation in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, Special Session, on HIV/AIDS.
Recent research has changed the AIDS headlines, but that shouldn't matter to the church.
At first glance, a comment this week from the head of the HIV/AIDS department of the World Health Organization seems to indicate that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is all but over. In an interview with London's Independent, Dr. Kevin De Cock said, "There will be no generalized epidemic of AIDS in the heterosexual population outside Africa."
Coming on the heels of the UNAIDS report in November 2007 that revised the estimates of those infected with HIV downward from 40 million to 33 million, one could conclude that HIV is no longer a humanitarian crisis.
Not so. As De Cock goes on to say, "AIDS still remains the leading infectious disease challenge in public health. It is an acute infection, but a chronic disease. It is for the very, very long haul. People are backing off, saying it is taking care of itself. It is not."
To me, the larger questions are not about numbers or categories — how many people are infected, or whether more homosexuals or heterosexuals are likely to become infected. The reasons I became an advocate for people with HIV six years ago are just as valid as they were then. Not much has changed.
I can think of several compelling reasons why the church of Jesus Christ must care about people with HIV and AIDS whether they're straight, gay, old, young, victim, victimizer, African, Asian, Indian, Latino, or Caucasian. The categories are irrelevant to our call to care.
The most important reason is for the church to care is that it is completely unexpected. When was the last time the church cared about a sexually transmitted disease? Historically, we haven't done a very good job of teaching healthy sex and sexuality, so it isn't surprising that we don't want to talk about HIV and AIDS.
You can't talk about HIV without talking about sex! Because it is a sexually transmitted virus, the stigma is profound. Internationally and in my Southern California backyard, people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS can face divorce, beatings, job loss, rejection, loss of friends, discrimination, and violence. I could fill pages with the tragic stories of men, women, and children who have endured the painful stigma associated with HIV.
Unlike malaria or tuberculosis (which can be cured with $20 worth of medication when caught early enough), HIV is incurable. It is ultimately a fatal disease, ravaging the immune system of the infected person, leaving them vulnerable to opportunistic infections that a normal immune system could deal with.
One piece of good news amid the bad is that HIV is treatable. In the United States and in other developed nations, where life-saving medications are readily available, an HIV positive individual can expect to live a relatively normal life. People in developing nations do not fare so well. Without access to these "wonder drugs," life expectancy after diagnosis can be three to five years.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, I asked my oncologist how I got cancer. Did I do something wrong? Was it genetics? Should I have eaten more broccoli? He told me he had no idea why I got cancer. HIV is different. We know how it is transmitted. That mystery was solved more than 20 years ago, and in the process, we also learned it is almost 100 percent preventable.
The toll HIV and AIDS exerts does not end with claiming the life of the infected person. Children whose parents die prematurely face a bleak future, easily becoming HIV statistics themselves, thus repeating a vicious cycle of infection and death.
If you knew there was an incurable but preventable and treatable disease that brought shame and stigma, created millions of orphans, decimated families, and jeopardized the hard-won development gains of dozens of the nations of our world, wouldn't you care?
If you're still not sure, reluctant to give your heart and your help to those with HIV and AIDS, take a look at Mark 1:40-42 (NIV). A leper, widely assumed to have secret, unconfessed sin, braved the crushing stigma and fear his illness created to find Jesus. So ashamed of his condition, he approached our Master on his knees, begging to be healed. Jesus could have turned his back on the man, shouted accusations at his sinful state, refused to even speak to him. Instead, the Bible says he was "filled with compassion." He reached out his hand, touched the man, and healed him.
This story never fails to instruct me, to move me. Jesus had the perfect opportunity to ask this man how he became ill, but he didn't. He just helped him. I don't think it's wild speculation to assume that the man's spiritual leprosy was healed that day as well. Jesus models for us how to approach people with the leprosy of our time — HIV and AIDS. As we care for their bodies, care for the orphans and vulnerable children left behind, care for the spiritual wounds that lie hidden deep in the soul, categories and numbers become people.
People Jesus loves. People Jesus died for. People who will never know there is a Savior unless our biblical worldview includes a willingness to ask the larger questions.
Kay Warren, author of Dangerous Surrender, is head of the HIV/AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church. In late June, she was part of the official U.S. delegation in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, Special Session, on HIV/AIDS.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Standing in Line for an IPhone
This past Saturday morning I drove out to Oakbrook Mall, a place I visit very infrequently, to do something I've not really done before, stand in line for a product that had been hyped beyond belief by Apple and the electronic media machine...I had decided when the new IPhone came out with a lower price I would trade in my 4 year old cell phone and join the Mac world on a deeper level by making it my 40th birthday gift from some family members...
To be honest, spending money on things like an IPhone are fairly torturous for my mind and my worldview...even as I showed Ingrid how cool some of its features were I was struggling with spending my resources in this way...
I headed out to the Apple store and got there about 20 minutes before it was scheduled to open at 9 am...I figured I'd be there an hour, maybe two at the most after missing the hysteria of 3G Friday's release day 24 hours before...there was aline of maybe 100 people ahead of me and within the next hour there were close to 200 behind me...it was a cloudy Saturday morning and I had brought along my new issue of Sports Illustrated to read in line and found myself sending a few last texts and making a couple final phone calls on my soon-to-be-retired phone...and then for some reason I'm still not sure about, perhaps network issues or people asking lots of questions, the line began to move slower and slowere and slower...I called Ingrid and she asked me if I needed food or drink or sunscreen as the clock moved toward noon...
Over the course of the 4 1/2 hours I stood in line to purchase a phone the time and the experience ended up being bizzare, profound, and a fascinating sociological study of American culture...
First of all, I had some truly remarkable and enjoyable conversations...an incredibly bright DuPage county judge and I talked for hours about Africa, global literature, young evangelicals, parenting in this generation, high school and college athletics, the impact of electronic communication, mutual friends, and different approaches to faith and justice as we stood in line for something we both admitted we knew we clearly did not need...and yet this span of time in life allowed us to connect rather deeply without interruption from our busy lives and schedules...
Another guy in line with us told us to just come in with him when he was called first into the store because we were now family members anyways...
Overall, it was fascinating to see who was in line with me:
*A couple who had driven from another state and spent the night to get one
*A guy who had been turned away at 11:30 pm the night before at another Apple store
*Dads buying their junior high daughters a new IPhone
*People who already had phones less than a year now but needed more speed
And as the minutes turned to hours, all around the outdoor mall people's questions and frustrations became more apparent...
As we stood in a line snaking thru the outdoor mall courtyard, one older man rather curtly asked us, "Why in the world would you stand in line for a stupid phone you can get next week?" My new friend and I just kind of shrugged our shoulders and each thought that we are mulling over the same question...
The people in line near us began to lose patience and complain about Apple's slow service, incompetent customer care plan for this day, and the rising humidity and temperatures...and as people began to talk about what a miserable experience, what a waste of time this quest to get the IPhone was now for hundreds here and millions of Americans, something stirred in me and my thoughts began to race to lines in other parts of the world, places where people even at that moment were doing the same physical act for vastly different reasons...
*I had thoughts of my friend Trent's friends in Zimbabwe standing in line for 5 hours for a loaf of bread that costs 10 billion dollars in an economy ravaged by inflation and a nation devastated by an evil dictator
*I had thoughts of some of my Zambian friends standing in line for hours to get tested and then get the results of an HIV test at a rural health clinic
*And I had thoughts of the hundreds of trucks waiting hours thru the night to get across the Botswana border into Zambia and the women willing to sleep with truck drivers bored by frustration and being in a never ending line just so they can fill their stomachs and the swollen bellies of their children with the only way they can gather resources as a woman in an injust and desperate world
That quiet, yet so forceful voice of the Holy Spirit spoke louder than Steve Jobs and left me with a few other questions to bring home in addition to my new phone in the stylish white Apple bag:
#1) Have I been taken by the Apple marketing wave to believe that this is something I need when it might not be helpful to my ministry, family life, and the stewardship of my resources? (I did use it to look up microfinance opportunities at my student leadership team meeting last night!)
#2) What would my friends in Kakolo Village think of the IPhone?
#3) Do I care and pray daily for those in line and need around the world with the interest and concern I have in my new piece of technology?
#4) Does technology make our lives better, richer, and deeper?
#5) And do I chase the "American Dream" harder than the "Kingdom Dream" I've discovered in the Gospels?
To be honest, this whole experience was powerful and quite strange...I am caught once again between...between thinking why I am so conflicted about this when I am a suburban American and why am I buying this crazy item as a globally minded follower of Jesus...and while I definitely find myself wishing some days for no lines and no worries about how to live each day well and right, deep in my soul I know that I am so blessed to know and understand people in lines so different than the one I stood in on a lazy summer Saturday...may I, may you continue to help take them out of their lines as we share God's grace with people near and far from the IPhone's reach...
And I'm hoping I'll remember those in line every time I use my I Phone every day...
To be honest, spending money on things like an IPhone are fairly torturous for my mind and my worldview...even as I showed Ingrid how cool some of its features were I was struggling with spending my resources in this way...
I headed out to the Apple store and got there about 20 minutes before it was scheduled to open at 9 am...I figured I'd be there an hour, maybe two at the most after missing the hysteria of 3G Friday's release day 24 hours before...there was aline of maybe 100 people ahead of me and within the next hour there were close to 200 behind me...it was a cloudy Saturday morning and I had brought along my new issue of Sports Illustrated to read in line and found myself sending a few last texts and making a couple final phone calls on my soon-to-be-retired phone...and then for some reason I'm still not sure about, perhaps network issues or people asking lots of questions, the line began to move slower and slowere and slower...I called Ingrid and she asked me if I needed food or drink or sunscreen as the clock moved toward noon...
Over the course of the 4 1/2 hours I stood in line to purchase a phone the time and the experience ended up being bizzare, profound, and a fascinating sociological study of American culture...
First of all, I had some truly remarkable and enjoyable conversations...an incredibly bright DuPage county judge and I talked for hours about Africa, global literature, young evangelicals, parenting in this generation, high school and college athletics, the impact of electronic communication, mutual friends, and different approaches to faith and justice as we stood in line for something we both admitted we knew we clearly did not need...and yet this span of time in life allowed us to connect rather deeply without interruption from our busy lives and schedules...
Another guy in line with us told us to just come in with him when he was called first into the store because we were now family members anyways...
Overall, it was fascinating to see who was in line with me:
*A couple who had driven from another state and spent the night to get one
*A guy who had been turned away at 11:30 pm the night before at another Apple store
*Dads buying their junior high daughters a new IPhone
*People who already had phones less than a year now but needed more speed
And as the minutes turned to hours, all around the outdoor mall people's questions and frustrations became more apparent...
As we stood in a line snaking thru the outdoor mall courtyard, one older man rather curtly asked us, "Why in the world would you stand in line for a stupid phone you can get next week?" My new friend and I just kind of shrugged our shoulders and each thought that we are mulling over the same question...
The people in line near us began to lose patience and complain about Apple's slow service, incompetent customer care plan for this day, and the rising humidity and temperatures...and as people began to talk about what a miserable experience, what a waste of time this quest to get the IPhone was now for hundreds here and millions of Americans, something stirred in me and my thoughts began to race to lines in other parts of the world, places where people even at that moment were doing the same physical act for vastly different reasons...
*I had thoughts of my friend Trent's friends in Zimbabwe standing in line for 5 hours for a loaf of bread that costs 10 billion dollars in an economy ravaged by inflation and a nation devastated by an evil dictator
*I had thoughts of some of my Zambian friends standing in line for hours to get tested and then get the results of an HIV test at a rural health clinic
*And I had thoughts of the hundreds of trucks waiting hours thru the night to get across the Botswana border into Zambia and the women willing to sleep with truck drivers bored by frustration and being in a never ending line just so they can fill their stomachs and the swollen bellies of their children with the only way they can gather resources as a woman in an injust and desperate world
That quiet, yet so forceful voice of the Holy Spirit spoke louder than Steve Jobs and left me with a few other questions to bring home in addition to my new phone in the stylish white Apple bag:
#1) Have I been taken by the Apple marketing wave to believe that this is something I need when it might not be helpful to my ministry, family life, and the stewardship of my resources? (I did use it to look up microfinance opportunities at my student leadership team meeting last night!)
#2) What would my friends in Kakolo Village think of the IPhone?
#3) Do I care and pray daily for those in line and need around the world with the interest and concern I have in my new piece of technology?
#4) Does technology make our lives better, richer, and deeper?
#5) And do I chase the "American Dream" harder than the "Kingdom Dream" I've discovered in the Gospels?
To be honest, this whole experience was powerful and quite strange...I am caught once again between...between thinking why I am so conflicted about this when I am a suburban American and why am I buying this crazy item as a globally minded follower of Jesus...and while I definitely find myself wishing some days for no lines and no worries about how to live each day well and right, deep in my soul I know that I am so blessed to know and understand people in lines so different than the one I stood in on a lazy summer Saturday...may I, may you continue to help take them out of their lines as we share God's grace with people near and far from the IPhone's reach...
And I'm hoping I'll remember those in line every time I use my I Phone every day...
Saturday, June 21, 2008
A Summary of Thoughts about a Fourth Sacred Trip to Zambia
This morning we walked out on the tarmac of the Lusaka Airport one last time and I am now sitting late at night in a hotel next to the London Heathrow Airport...there are feelings of sadness leaving and fears about adjusting back to life in the States and a deep, deep longing to be home...and after 3 hours of sharing and closing conversation last night in a large African hut restaurant space there are so many things we have seen, tried to process, and experienced these past 2 weeks since we left O'Hare and you all...so here goes nothing and is a brief summary of my reflections on the plane out of Zambia back to the first world...
10 THINGS GOD TAUGHT ME WHEN I TRAVELED TO THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY CALLED ZAMBIA:
1. The globalization of the world allows us a unique opportunity to be a truly global church that loves and learns from each other while seeking to bring God's reign and rule to all hearts and nations together
2. The African Christians can and do help us live out a much more authentic and simple and vibrant faith as we see them live with great trust in Jesus every day
3. This generation of students has a deep need to see that the biblical value of justice is played out in the lives of each person made in the image of God
4. A remarkably small amount of financial resource given in Jesus' name can truly and dramatically change now and for eternity so many lives in so many places around the world
5. Our shared passions and interests, whether they be soccer or dance or music or health care or learning can be used to build instant friendships and are remarkable platforms for the Gospel to be brought forth in all its fullness to people everywhere we go
6. God is truly doing fantastic things to make His name known and to use His people to bring healing to a broken land thru Zambian pastors, caregivers, World Vision staff, teachers, grandmothers, midwifes, and young people in Africa today
7. If God can use a group of high school students to bring transformational change to the lives and future of a community thousands and thousands of miles away, He is clearly in the business of giving out dreams and helping people make visions become reality as part of His purpose and plan to change and redeem the world
8. The images of poverty and disease, unreal injustices, unadulterated joy, deep and pure love, and remarkable beauty in God's created work we have seen in Africa are burned into our minds forever
9. Taking a missions/vision trip overseas only justifies the cost and the time if one's world view and heart for people is so altered that our lifestyles are different and we respond with action to God's promptings from the Spirit to do something to change how we live and how life is lived in the places we have been
10. What the Zambia Project at Wheaton Academy has been all about and accomplished can and ought to be the norm rather than the exception for Christian schools, churches, ministries, and groups of Christ-followers in light of the incredible needs across the globe and across our towns, the state of rich blessedness we live in, and God's desire for it to happen!
I shared in our final Zambia Project chapel just over one month ago from Jesus' most clear action step we are to take on this planet when He declares in Matthew 22 that the Second Greatest Commandment that follows the First is to 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' I am so excited to see what that continues to mean in my own life and the lives of 24 others who spent 2 weeks together in the summer of 2008 in Zambia as we all continue to seek to love people at WA, in West Chicago and other suburbs, on college campuses, and in Africa and all other parts of the globe...
This trip is designed to be both an ending and a beginning in response to seeing the impact of the Zambia Project and discovering the next step for each of us as it relates to our response to the global needs of people close to us and so far away...I can't wait to see the next phase of the impact and power of loving our neighbors in the lives of this community I have loved being part of for the last 13 days and the larger WA community in the days, months, years, and lives to come...
Here's a final thought from U2's Bono about working in Africa and why we believe so strongly as we come home that we can make a difference: "We can't lose because we're putting our shoulder to a door that God Almighty has already opened."
SEEKING TO BRING AFRICA AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER BACK HOME WITH US TO SHARE WITH YOU,
Chip
10 THINGS GOD TAUGHT ME WHEN I TRAVELED TO THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY CALLED ZAMBIA:
1. The globalization of the world allows us a unique opportunity to be a truly global church that loves and learns from each other while seeking to bring God's reign and rule to all hearts and nations together
2. The African Christians can and do help us live out a much more authentic and simple and vibrant faith as we see them live with great trust in Jesus every day
3. This generation of students has a deep need to see that the biblical value of justice is played out in the lives of each person made in the image of God
4. A remarkably small amount of financial resource given in Jesus' name can truly and dramatically change now and for eternity so many lives in so many places around the world
5. Our shared passions and interests, whether they be soccer or dance or music or health care or learning can be used to build instant friendships and are remarkable platforms for the Gospel to be brought forth in all its fullness to people everywhere we go
6. God is truly doing fantastic things to make His name known and to use His people to bring healing to a broken land thru Zambian pastors, caregivers, World Vision staff, teachers, grandmothers, midwifes, and young people in Africa today
7. If God can use a group of high school students to bring transformational change to the lives and future of a community thousands and thousands of miles away, He is clearly in the business of giving out dreams and helping people make visions become reality as part of His purpose and plan to change and redeem the world
8. The images of poverty and disease, unreal injustices, unadulterated joy, deep and pure love, and remarkable beauty in God's created work we have seen in Africa are burned into our minds forever
9. Taking a missions/vision trip overseas only justifies the cost and the time if one's world view and heart for people is so altered that our lifestyles are different and we respond with action to God's promptings from the Spirit to do something to change how we live and how life is lived in the places we have been
10. What the Zambia Project at Wheaton Academy has been all about and accomplished can and ought to be the norm rather than the exception for Christian schools, churches, ministries, and groups of Christ-followers in light of the incredible needs across the globe and across our towns, the state of rich blessedness we live in, and God's desire for it to happen!
I shared in our final Zambia Project chapel just over one month ago from Jesus' most clear action step we are to take on this planet when He declares in Matthew 22 that the Second Greatest Commandment that follows the First is to 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' I am so excited to see what that continues to mean in my own life and the lives of 24 others who spent 2 weeks together in the summer of 2008 in Zambia as we all continue to seek to love people at WA, in West Chicago and other suburbs, on college campuses, and in Africa and all other parts of the globe...
This trip is designed to be both an ending and a beginning in response to seeing the impact of the Zambia Project and discovering the next step for each of us as it relates to our response to the global needs of people close to us and so far away...I can't wait to see the next phase of the impact and power of loving our neighbors in the lives of this community I have loved being part of for the last 13 days and the larger WA community in the days, months, years, and lives to come...
Here's a final thought from U2's Bono about working in Africa and why we believe so strongly as we come home that we can make a difference: "We can't lose because we're putting our shoulder to a door that God Almighty has already opened."
SEEKING TO BRING AFRICA AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER BACK HOME WITH US TO SHARE WITH YOU,
Chip
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Safari Day in Africa
Today is my final blog from Africa as we head back to Lusaka tomorrow and leave Zambia on Saturday…we hope to get a chance to do some work in the RAPIDS office, a USAID funded program to help in the prevention and care of those suffering from HIV/AIDS all across Zambia…
We had an amazing time traveling to Botswana and seeing a wide assortment of animals up close and personal in our safari at Chobe Game Park today…we started out cruising the river and met up with crocidiles, hippos, exotic birds, and elephants taking baths to cool off on a sunny day…after lunch we headed out in jeeps on the land and saw three lions sleeping on top of each other, a group of ten giraffes running in sequence across the African plains, and so many impala, buffalo, kudu, and more elephants you can’t even count them all…we should have incredible pictures to show you and going to the zoo back home may not be so exciting for a while…
After our final dinner in Livingstone tonight we sat down to talk about the reality of what we have seen in Africa in the last ten days and what our response might be as we begin to prepare to come home…we will finish that conversation tomorrow, but there was an air of heaviness and tension as we discussed what we have and even our struggles these last two days staying at a nice resort, eating lunch at a gorgeous safari lodge, seeing sex workers at the border as hundreds of trucks wait to clear customs, and still having so many scenes of our friends and their needs in Kakolo Village and the villages right next to our accommodations be so fresh in our minds…I have discovered over the years that coming and having my heart moved in Africa creates this deep tension about what life ought to look like for both me and those who live here…there is almost a fear in coming home because you know you must live somewhat differently if you are to honor the trip and God’s work in your heart and life…and we often don’t know what that might mean…and yet I see that there is such great growth in this journey as we seek to bridge these two worlds and the people God loves so deeply in both spots…as you pray for us between now and Sunday afternoon would you pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to speak and that in community we can wisely help one another pursue God’s call both now and in the days and months to come as followers of Jesus who love and want the world to know Him and experience life in all the fullness He has designed for it…
Africa has once again touched us deeply and we are forever grateful that God invited us to join Him here this last week and a half…
We are so anxious to see you Sunday afternoon at O’Hare!!
On the journey home and to a deeper life with Jesus and commitment to His Kingdom work with your students…CHIP
We had an amazing time traveling to Botswana and seeing a wide assortment of animals up close and personal in our safari at Chobe Game Park today…we started out cruising the river and met up with crocidiles, hippos, exotic birds, and elephants taking baths to cool off on a sunny day…after lunch we headed out in jeeps on the land and saw three lions sleeping on top of each other, a group of ten giraffes running in sequence across the African plains, and so many impala, buffalo, kudu, and more elephants you can’t even count them all…we should have incredible pictures to show you and going to the zoo back home may not be so exciting for a while…
After our final dinner in Livingstone tonight we sat down to talk about the reality of what we have seen in Africa in the last ten days and what our response might be as we begin to prepare to come home…we will finish that conversation tomorrow, but there was an air of heaviness and tension as we discussed what we have and even our struggles these last two days staying at a nice resort, eating lunch at a gorgeous safari lodge, seeing sex workers at the border as hundreds of trucks wait to clear customs, and still having so many scenes of our friends and their needs in Kakolo Village and the villages right next to our accommodations be so fresh in our minds…I have discovered over the years that coming and having my heart moved in Africa creates this deep tension about what life ought to look like for both me and those who live here…there is almost a fear in coming home because you know you must live somewhat differently if you are to honor the trip and God’s work in your heart and life…and we often don’t know what that might mean…and yet I see that there is such great growth in this journey as we seek to bridge these two worlds and the people God loves so deeply in both spots…as you pray for us between now and Sunday afternoon would you pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to speak and that in community we can wisely help one another pursue God’s call both now and in the days and months to come as followers of Jesus who love and want the world to know Him and experience life in all the fullness He has designed for it…
Africa has once again touched us deeply and we are forever grateful that God invited us to join Him here this last week and a half…
We are so anxious to see you Sunday afternoon at O’Hare!!
On the journey home and to a deeper life with Jesus and commitment to His Kingdom work with your students…CHIP
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Victoria Falls
We spent an absolutely gorgeous Zambia afternoon at one of the most beautiful and staggering displays of creation on our planet...we wandered around Victoria Falls for a couple hours seeing babboons show us their red back sides, get soaked by the mist of the spray of the thundering water pouring down as the Zambezi river empties down some 300 feet, watching bungee jumpers plunge off a bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe, seeing double rainbows above the falls, and taking hundreds of pictures above the falls where missionary David Livingstone came upon them in a small canoe over 150 years ago...
And there were quiet moments reveling in the midst of God's splendor while knowing the poverty and disease and political turmoil and so many people in desperate need were all around us...and yet the power of God in the falls speaks to the vastness of His love and grace and strength for all things in a truly remarkable way...
We are off to see all kinds of His created animals tomorrow on safari as we wind down our time here in Africa...
We are truly counting the days to see you all and again and show and tell what this experience has been for all of us...
CHIP
And there were quiet moments reveling in the midst of God's splendor while knowing the poverty and disease and political turmoil and so many people in desperate need were all around us...and yet the power of God in the falls speaks to the vastness of His love and grace and strength for all things in a truly remarkable way...
We are off to see all kinds of His created animals tomorrow on safari as we wind down our time here in Africa...
We are truly counting the days to see you all and again and show and tell what this experience has been for all of us...
CHIP
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