so in regards to all this hype about going green and saving the environment, i decided to write my 2 cents about this matter...
within the past 2-3 yrs... going 'green' has become a fad... in the 70s, if you were in support of the green party and was an environmentalist, they call you a hippie. Nowdays, if you shop organically grown food, recycle and drive a hybrid, they call you someone whose 'green'.
now, i'm not an environmentalist... sometimes i forget to recycle, i don't normally buy organic food, and i don't go out of my way to pick up garbage on the streets... i guess the only 'green' thigns i have or do is that i drive a fuel efficient car (only b/c i had no choice in getting it), i started riding my bike to places (b/c i want to exercise) and i use a SIGG (alluminum) water bottle.
but by no means i'm wasteful. I always finish all the food that's on my plate (can't let it go to waste), i don't usually buy bottled water (only b/c i hate buying water), and i try hard to remember to recycle.
one guy that's pretty 'green' is my favourite artist jack johnson.
he's got that laid back surfer presence combine w/ some pretty chill songs and a value of family, community and the environment... pretty cool guy huh?
not too long ago, my fiancee and i had went to his concert near barrie to see him live... this was my second jack johnson concert.
w/ all the hype around his new environmentalist non-profit organization called 'all at once', i've heard alot about how he tours in a veggie oil bus, tells the venues to recycle, hires caterers that buys locally grown organic food... this guy is pretty green.
but any trend that blows up quickly and becomes popular... i'm always skeptical of...
we got companies from toyota to wal-mart going 'green'....
w/ this skepticism, i went to the concert... only to find out that jack johnson's concert... was not that different then the previous concerts that i've been to (venue, food, pricing, atmosphere,'green' wise)...
i saw water bottles everywhere (even though they had water re-filling stations, which i didn't see any of them). water bottles in vendors and on the ground (after the show). The food was the same greesy overprice food ($5-7 for hot dogs to a slice of pizza). Although there was one vendor out of 20 + vendors, was vegetarian and organic... the food options were dominated by pizzavilles and greese n' more greese (although i quite enjoyed my greesy poutine).
the atmosphere was a mix... i saw some families at the back (who were pretty laid back), but kelly and i were surrounded w/ pot heads that kept pushing us to keep moving forward towards the stage... i tell you after 5 hrs of waiting, 3 hrs of watching pretty lame bands... by the time jack johnson came on... i was pretty exhausted.
don't get me wrong, the show was amazing! he played most of my favourite songs at the begining which lifted my spirits up, but by the end of the set, i just wanted to get outa there to beat the crowd... needless to say, we left the show before the last song (which i never do at concerts, especially not jack johnson)...
so what did i learn from this experience?
i learned that, no matter how hard people try to go 'green', things will still remain the same unless we change the very cause of what's effecting the environment.... our life style.
There are roughly about 600 million cars in this world..... that's crazy in terms of thinking about how much one car can produce CO2 emissions.
In toronto alone there are about 100 million plastic bottles that end up wasted in the city... and only 65% gets recycled... the rest goes into our land... which will take thousands of years to decompose or they get burnt which the harmful fume goes into our eco system.
as you obviously know, there are endless factors that effects the environment, planes, ships, hydro, electricity, cities, manufactoring industry, lumber industry, etc...
these mass production and mass consumption of capitalism had crippled our environment and i believe that the earth's life is being shortened by the second.
in my opinion, we as people need to learn to live more simply. we need to get rid of the belief of 'more is better', instead we need to learn to live with less. we as consumers need to be aware of the evil that goes on behind these products and learn to live without the things that everyone else seems to have.
why can't a household have 1 car instead of 2?
why do we have to pump AC so high in buildings that i have to wear a sweater inside?
why do we buy bottled water instead of drinking tap water (by the way, dasani and aquafina drinkers, they're owned by coca-cola and pepsi and they just put filtered tap waters from Vancouver, Calgary, Mississauga and Brampton. how bout that, they use our tax money to fill up their water and sell it to our asses for $1.50, sounds like a scam if you ask me).
we need to learn to live without the luxuries of this society has to offer, and live a simple life in order to battle this issue. I believe that as Christians, we need to be more aware of where our money's going and also take care of this beautiful land God had given to us. Remember, the kingdom coming looks more like heaven coming to earth then 'us' going to heaven. when all is said and done, God will make all things new, there will be a new heaven and new earth... let's take well care of the land that's been a blessing to all of us.
before i close...
what if people had put the same type of focus into ending poverty in our world instead on the environment.... i wonder how many lives we could save with this kind of attention we're giving just to go 'GREEN'...
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Commercialization of Christianity
I see alot of advertisements within Christian websites, churches and even in sunday services...
prime example would be www.crosswalk.com.
i used this website to read the bible... that's it... they do have this one yr bible thing that helps you to read the bible in a year but most of the website is filled w/ ads, ads and more ads.
'10 steps to become a Christian', 'How to protect your marriage from infedelity', 'Conquering loneliness', 'Start your life changing journey now', Biblical wine - grape juice or alcoholic beverage', and the worse one out of all 'Find the love of your life today'.... sadly that ad leads you to eharmony.com... how sad...
how sad that we have commercialized Christianity... it's insane how 'Christian' has become a product instead of a life that is manifested through Christ.
Christianity have quickly become just another life style people are living... and the institutionalized churches (there's a difference b/w church as the body of Christ vs. church as an institution), are numbing the minds of Christians and have drifted Christ's teachings from the communal living as followers of Christ to isolated Christians constantly failing to fulfil the calling of God.
Why do we need 'programs' and 'guides' to be a follower of Christ?
Don't get me wrong, there are some great Christian organizations and books and music and what not, that's out there... but the institutionalized churches have become corporations instead of the body of Christ.
We only care about ourselves... our future, our possessions, our families and friends, our careers and our lives... that we fail to live the heart of Christ's teaching... that is to selflessly love... to become last, to be servants in this world...
There's only one leader, only one Lord, that is Jesus. We're all servants of God, and as servants we have to put ourselves last before everyone else... i fail to do that everytime...
Also, alot of Christians have become and look like everybody else in our society... I feel that the 'dark forces of this world' and the evil or this world as Paul describes it, keeps us from fully experiencing life in ways which God intended us to have... there's lack of creativity, faith and trust... that we all fall into the patterns of this world... losing out sight of God... and maybe in our North American churches... we have lost sight of God.
I believe that in order to go back to the foundation of Jesus' teachings is to live and exist relationally. What i mean by that is to live and learn in a community where Christ is the head of our Church (instead of the pope or a reverend), where us as a community take care of one another and to eliminate the evil that exists in this world (ie, selfishness, greed, etc...)
Instead of a 10 step guide, maybe we need is people who will teach us and to learn with us, instead of worrying constantly about one's marriage falling apart, we may seek help from one another and to keep eachother accountable.
Even God chooses to exist relationally... (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
I believe that the situations the disciples were faced with back in the New Testament age is no different that the situations we're face with now. We live in a world where there are forces that constantly draws away from living in communities and living according to God's words. We're bombarded with advertisements to make us buy the things we don't need and support the very own evil that is causing poverty and oppression in this world. That is happening in Canada, US, Europe... in all the 1st world countries.
It starts w/ resisting these forces, resisting these 'common belief' to move forward to be the seed that falls on good soil to produce fuit. To go back to the true foundation of Jesus' teachings... instead of these false representations...
prime example would be www.crosswalk.com.
i used this website to read the bible... that's it... they do have this one yr bible thing that helps you to read the bible in a year but most of the website is filled w/ ads, ads and more ads.
'10 steps to become a Christian', 'How to protect your marriage from infedelity', 'Conquering loneliness', 'Start your life changing journey now', Biblical wine - grape juice or alcoholic beverage', and the worse one out of all 'Find the love of your life today'.... sadly that ad leads you to eharmony.com... how sad...
how sad that we have commercialized Christianity... it's insane how 'Christian' has become a product instead of a life that is manifested through Christ.
Christianity have quickly become just another life style people are living... and the institutionalized churches (there's a difference b/w church as the body of Christ vs. church as an institution), are numbing the minds of Christians and have drifted Christ's teachings from the communal living as followers of Christ to isolated Christians constantly failing to fulfil the calling of God.
Why do we need 'programs' and 'guides' to be a follower of Christ?
Don't get me wrong, there are some great Christian organizations and books and music and what not, that's out there... but the institutionalized churches have become corporations instead of the body of Christ.
We only care about ourselves... our future, our possessions, our families and friends, our careers and our lives... that we fail to live the heart of Christ's teaching... that is to selflessly love... to become last, to be servants in this world...
There's only one leader, only one Lord, that is Jesus. We're all servants of God, and as servants we have to put ourselves last before everyone else... i fail to do that everytime...
Also, alot of Christians have become and look like everybody else in our society... I feel that the 'dark forces of this world' and the evil or this world as Paul describes it, keeps us from fully experiencing life in ways which God intended us to have... there's lack of creativity, faith and trust... that we all fall into the patterns of this world... losing out sight of God... and maybe in our North American churches... we have lost sight of God.
I believe that in order to go back to the foundation of Jesus' teachings is to live and exist relationally. What i mean by that is to live and learn in a community where Christ is the head of our Church (instead of the pope or a reverend), where us as a community take care of one another and to eliminate the evil that exists in this world (ie, selfishness, greed, etc...)
Instead of a 10 step guide, maybe we need is people who will teach us and to learn with us, instead of worrying constantly about one's marriage falling apart, we may seek help from one another and to keep eachother accountable.
Even God chooses to exist relationally... (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
I believe that the situations the disciples were faced with back in the New Testament age is no different that the situations we're face with now. We live in a world where there are forces that constantly draws away from living in communities and living according to God's words. We're bombarded with advertisements to make us buy the things we don't need and support the very own evil that is causing poverty and oppression in this world. That is happening in Canada, US, Europe... in all the 1st world countries.
It starts w/ resisting these forces, resisting these 'common belief' to move forward to be the seed that falls on good soil to produce fuit. To go back to the true foundation of Jesus' teachings... instead of these false representations...
Thursday, August 14, 2008
common sense and dependence on logic vs. supernatural sense and dependence on God
i guess you can call me someone whose always been part of the normal stages in adolenscense to early adult life...
complete high school, get a degree, get a job, then get married.
I have completed all of the above except for the last part... which i'm in the process of completing... it will be done in less than 2 months... (yipeeeee!)
you see, i'm a task oriented person... i have a list of things to do in life and i go and complete them (taking care of business...).
I can also be very practical and rely heavily on logic.... i don't like doing things twice and i guess completing an economics degree, i like to be efficient and have most amount of return on my investments, whether it's money, relationships, time, etc...
However, i can't stand it when things don't go my way... if i can't complete a task, if i have to do things twice, if i'm being inefficient and not logical.... i guess i strugle w/ control... and not being able to let go of certain things... (this is the reason for most of my disputes with people)
In the midst of all this... i guess that i've been also a person who sometimes made decisions w/o properly thinking it through and just went w/ my gut feelings (i guess a fancy Christian way of saying it is 'leading of the holy spirit'). I went to tyndale college after i graduated out of high school for 1 yr (private christian university = ridiculous tuition), I spent many of my summers working for MYW (completely voluntary, no wage), I've went on many short term missions trips costing thousands of dollars (Nashville, Camden, Portugal), and also last year I went on the oldest passenger ship in the world (built in 1914 i think) for 2 months volunteering in the kitchen.
I feel that most of the times, there is this battle going on inside me.... practical James vs. 'CRAZY' James... most of the times the practical one wins... but i realized that when i do let go of situations and things... i feel at peace... when i try to stop controlling my situations and future... i ease up and stop stressing....
my beautiful fiancee read this to me the other day and it really stuck w/ me... because i can see how common sense and practicaliy can obstruct our view of the path that has been paved by God.
This is from Oswald Chamber's devotional book 'My Utmost for His Highest'.
"Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will. Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God. We have to see that this mortal flesh is kept in perfect subjection to Him and that He works through it moment by moment. Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment? "
I love it when he says, 'Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment?'.... wow... we live in such a culture where we have everything by our finger tips. From food to clothes, we live in a society that have overflowing of goods. No wonder people don't believe in God, no wonder us Christians don't depend on God. We have everything.
If i'm hungry, i'll go and buy food, i have money cause i work, i can work cause i have education, i have education cause my parents paid for it and i went to school, i was able to go to school because i lived in a stable environment which helped me to focus on the things that i was doing.
pretty logical isn't it? but maybe not...
I have heard the voice of God couple times in my life (you might either think i'm crazy and hear things, i'm being overly spiritual, or i'm simply telling the event according to how i remembered).
When i was leaving the ship that i was on for 2 months, volunteering and meeting the volunteers... i was very emotional and overwhelmed because some of these people i've gotten to know really well and loved, i will probably never see them again.... in the midst of this i pulled out my bible to maybe read some scripture to calm myself down... i was looking for a verse that says 'delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart'... i knew that was in Psalms... but could not figure out which chapter. As i was fliping through the pages... i heard '37'.... i thought to myself what?... i never heard something so distinct in my life... and as i opened the chapter... lo & behold, there's the verse...
i started crying cause i was overwhelmed.. i was in awe and had all these mixed emotions... hapiness, confusion, comfort, can't really expalin it but... i knew that God spoke to me... wanted me to read the verse... that as i delight in Him... He too will delight in me and give me the desires of my heart... at that time... my desire was to see those people again, the people whom i lived with for 2 months... learning to serve God and eachother... and to praise the same God regardless of where we were from...
I could've reasoned with this experience... a logical thing would be to say that i only thought the things that i believed i heard, or maybe i was overwhelmed w/ emotions that i 'thought' i heard God speak.... regardless of all this... i know that i heard God. How and Why? i can't explain...
I believe that this is the beauty of God... He cannot be explained... there's no formula to God, we cannot describe Him or the experience we have with Him because it is simply too overwhelming and .... CRAZY. (I like the way Donald Miller of 'Blue Like Jazz' had explained God being like Jazz music. No formula, no charts, no structure, just beautiful music...)
This is the supernatural sense... i don't mean to down play common sense... obviously that was given to us for a reason... but when we're following Christ... where the life that i live is no longer i living it, but it is Christ who is living through me... common sense, praticality, and logic goes straight out the window... and there's this supernatural sense that reside in our lives, which we cannot explain most of the time...
I believe that alot of times we tend to use common sense and logic to justify our choices... to either carry something out or not carry it out. I believe that this happens most of the times because of fear... fear of failing from making the wrong choice.
But I believe that when we're living under God's will, when we're truly carrying the cross and following Jesus... there's nothing to fear. God tells us not to fear... many many times in the bible... and the only place we should place fear is on God.
We maybe called to make choices that are unreasonable and illogical... but i want us to be encouraged that God calls us to set aside our natural tendency to follow common sense, but truly place our dependence on Him who calls us to be supernatural beings where Christ is being manifested in our lives.
That is my prayer...
complete high school, get a degree, get a job, then get married.
I have completed all of the above except for the last part... which i'm in the process of completing... it will be done in less than 2 months... (yipeeeee!)
you see, i'm a task oriented person... i have a list of things to do in life and i go and complete them (taking care of business...).
I can also be very practical and rely heavily on logic.... i don't like doing things twice and i guess completing an economics degree, i like to be efficient and have most amount of return on my investments, whether it's money, relationships, time, etc...
However, i can't stand it when things don't go my way... if i can't complete a task, if i have to do things twice, if i'm being inefficient and not logical.... i guess i strugle w/ control... and not being able to let go of certain things... (this is the reason for most of my disputes with people)
In the midst of all this... i guess that i've been also a person who sometimes made decisions w/o properly thinking it through and just went w/ my gut feelings (i guess a fancy Christian way of saying it is 'leading of the holy spirit'). I went to tyndale college after i graduated out of high school for 1 yr (private christian university = ridiculous tuition), I spent many of my summers working for MYW (completely voluntary, no wage), I've went on many short term missions trips costing thousands of dollars (Nashville, Camden, Portugal), and also last year I went on the oldest passenger ship in the world (built in 1914 i think) for 2 months volunteering in the kitchen.
I feel that most of the times, there is this battle going on inside me.... practical James vs. 'CRAZY' James... most of the times the practical one wins... but i realized that when i do let go of situations and things... i feel at peace... when i try to stop controlling my situations and future... i ease up and stop stressing....
my beautiful fiancee read this to me the other day and it really stuck w/ me... because i can see how common sense and practicaliy can obstruct our view of the path that has been paved by God.
This is from Oswald Chamber's devotional book 'My Utmost for His Highest'.
"Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will. Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God. We have to see that this mortal flesh is kept in perfect subjection to Him and that He works through it moment by moment. Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment? "
I love it when he says, 'Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment?'.... wow... we live in such a culture where we have everything by our finger tips. From food to clothes, we live in a society that have overflowing of goods. No wonder people don't believe in God, no wonder us Christians don't depend on God. We have everything.
If i'm hungry, i'll go and buy food, i have money cause i work, i can work cause i have education, i have education cause my parents paid for it and i went to school, i was able to go to school because i lived in a stable environment which helped me to focus on the things that i was doing.
pretty logical isn't it? but maybe not...
I have heard the voice of God couple times in my life (you might either think i'm crazy and hear things, i'm being overly spiritual, or i'm simply telling the event according to how i remembered).
When i was leaving the ship that i was on for 2 months, volunteering and meeting the volunteers... i was very emotional and overwhelmed because some of these people i've gotten to know really well and loved, i will probably never see them again.... in the midst of this i pulled out my bible to maybe read some scripture to calm myself down... i was looking for a verse that says 'delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart'... i knew that was in Psalms... but could not figure out which chapter. As i was fliping through the pages... i heard '37'.... i thought to myself what?... i never heard something so distinct in my life... and as i opened the chapter... lo & behold, there's the verse...
i started crying cause i was overwhelmed.. i was in awe and had all these mixed emotions... hapiness, confusion, comfort, can't really expalin it but... i knew that God spoke to me... wanted me to read the verse... that as i delight in Him... He too will delight in me and give me the desires of my heart... at that time... my desire was to see those people again, the people whom i lived with for 2 months... learning to serve God and eachother... and to praise the same God regardless of where we were from...
I could've reasoned with this experience... a logical thing would be to say that i only thought the things that i believed i heard, or maybe i was overwhelmed w/ emotions that i 'thought' i heard God speak.... regardless of all this... i know that i heard God. How and Why? i can't explain...
I believe that this is the beauty of God... He cannot be explained... there's no formula to God, we cannot describe Him or the experience we have with Him because it is simply too overwhelming and .... CRAZY. (I like the way Donald Miller of 'Blue Like Jazz' had explained God being like Jazz music. No formula, no charts, no structure, just beautiful music...)
This is the supernatural sense... i don't mean to down play common sense... obviously that was given to us for a reason... but when we're following Christ... where the life that i live is no longer i living it, but it is Christ who is living through me... common sense, praticality, and logic goes straight out the window... and there's this supernatural sense that reside in our lives, which we cannot explain most of the time...
I believe that alot of times we tend to use common sense and logic to justify our choices... to either carry something out or not carry it out. I believe that this happens most of the times because of fear... fear of failing from making the wrong choice.
But I believe that when we're living under God's will, when we're truly carrying the cross and following Jesus... there's nothing to fear. God tells us not to fear... many many times in the bible... and the only place we should place fear is on God.
We maybe called to make choices that are unreasonable and illogical... but i want us to be encouraged that God calls us to set aside our natural tendency to follow common sense, but truly place our dependence on Him who calls us to be supernatural beings where Christ is being manifested in our lives.
That is my prayer...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
as I sit here waiting...
I guess this could be the start...
I never quite understood the point of journaling, in fact I tried it couple of times and the problem I faced everytime was that I would never ever go back and read it again. And then I would forget about it completely... but I guess this could be another start.
For the passed 2 years, my faith has been shaken and turned upside down in many ways.
I'm done with the North American mega churches. I'm done with this consumer culture. I'm done with trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I'm DONE.
Here I am sitting at work wondering what I can pack for the up coming long weekend at my fiancee's cottage, how much fun it would be and thinking about how much money I should spend, there are 500 million people at the edge of starvation, 200 million children being exploited as labourers, and 1.5 billion people who do not have enough money to buy food.
I don't know about you, but not eating food for just one day makes my head spin and gets me thinking that I'm dying.
So shat does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus?
Should I feel guilty about the poverty in this world and not get to enjoy the 'blessings' in my life?
Should I not carry out the lifestyle that I have just because there are homeless people on our streets?
What do I do as a Christian? As a follower of the one who did not have a place to lay his head, who became poor for our sake, and who laid down his life to bring redemption for ALL?
We praise God on sunday mornings, we worship the One who calls us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take care of the widows and orphans, yet when when we walk out, we avoid the ones who are hungry, naked and just down right poor.
No wonder people call us hypocrites. No wonder people don't come to church.
Maybe we as Christians have become the 'white-washed tombs' and 'brood of vipers'. Maybe we have become the pharasees and saducees of Jesus' day, only concerned about our holiness and righteousness while we ignore what's really going on in our streets and in the 2/3 of this world.
Maybe we are the ones who are rejecting Christ instead of the people who are 'ungodly' and 'not-righteous'.
A friend of mine put that thought real nicely. He says:
"Let me ask you this: what does rejecting Christ look like? I know many people on the margins that don't want to have anything to do with Jesus. But why is this? In all the cases I have encountered, these people don't care about Jesus because they have been wounded, abandoned, and violated by those who professed to be followers of Jesus. So who, in the end, are these people rejecting? I suspect that they are rejecting false representatives of Jesus, and not Jesus himself. So, when others from the Christian community come to journey intimately with these people on the margins, and are loved dearly by these people on the margins, who is being accepted? I suspect it is Jesus himself that is being accepted.
And let's remember that one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess the Lordship of Christ. Maybe, when all is said and done, nobody will reject Christ. And, if that's the case, then God will make all things new."
I believe that most Christians (including myself) are concerned with our own rights to get into heaven. We long for that day to enter the paradise and try our best to keep God's laws.
Yet we forget to keep the greatest command, to love God and love the ones around us.
Matthew 25:42-25 puts it real well.
"42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"
What if instead of focusing on ourselves and our righteousness, we focus on others who are in need for once. Spending time with people who are lonely and rejected, feeding the hungry, clothing the people who's got nothing to wear... maybe then, we might experience the true transformation in our faith and in our lives as well.
These things I've been struggling for the past couple of years, and it has been real difficult for me to live this out, but I'm constantly learning and trying.
I'm getting married in October (yipee!), and my future wife and I will be moving to Australia for a year. I don't know what this all means, and you may think that Australia doesn't seem in line with the countries in Africa and South Asia that are on the poverty line but I know that there are poor people everywhere. There are marginalised people in all countries.
I know that it doesn't make sense to travel half way across the world to a similar country like Canada to start this type of lifestyle. And I'm definitely aware of that Toronto has one of the highest homeless rate in North America. But what my fiancee and I are planning is more than just helping the needy... It's a NEW start for us.
I believe that being surrounded by families and friends who don't quite share the same values in regards to this matter can have an effect on us and could even hold us back from truly living the way God calls us to live.
I believe that by being in a new country, new surroundings and with only the clothes on our backs, we can start a new life, a life that is abundant and the life that produces fruit (instead of constantly striving to be 'perfect').
So I'm waiting... until october comes. Being stuck here sucks... in an office... doing meaningless work, but I believe that God is teaching me... showing me... that this is NOT what I want to do for the rest of my life, that I'm desperate to live, live according to the call, to follow the one who calls me out of my comfort middle class life to truly journey with the poor, the marginalized and the rejected.
This is our calling...
I never quite understood the point of journaling, in fact I tried it couple of times and the problem I faced everytime was that I would never ever go back and read it again. And then I would forget about it completely... but I guess this could be another start.
For the passed 2 years, my faith has been shaken and turned upside down in many ways.
I'm done with the North American mega churches. I'm done with this consumer culture. I'm done with trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I'm DONE.
Here I am sitting at work wondering what I can pack for the up coming long weekend at my fiancee's cottage, how much fun it would be and thinking about how much money I should spend, there are 500 million people at the edge of starvation, 200 million children being exploited as labourers, and 1.5 billion people who do not have enough money to buy food.
I don't know about you, but not eating food for just one day makes my head spin and gets me thinking that I'm dying.
So shat does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus?
Should I feel guilty about the poverty in this world and not get to enjoy the 'blessings' in my life?
Should I not carry out the lifestyle that I have just because there are homeless people on our streets?
What do I do as a Christian? As a follower of the one who did not have a place to lay his head, who became poor for our sake, and who laid down his life to bring redemption for ALL?
We praise God on sunday mornings, we worship the One who calls us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take care of the widows and orphans, yet when when we walk out, we avoid the ones who are hungry, naked and just down right poor.
No wonder people call us hypocrites. No wonder people don't come to church.
Maybe we as Christians have become the 'white-washed tombs' and 'brood of vipers'. Maybe we have become the pharasees and saducees of Jesus' day, only concerned about our holiness and righteousness while we ignore what's really going on in our streets and in the 2/3 of this world.
Maybe we are the ones who are rejecting Christ instead of the people who are 'ungodly' and 'not-righteous'.
A friend of mine put that thought real nicely. He says:
"Let me ask you this: what does rejecting Christ look like? I know many people on the margins that don't want to have anything to do with Jesus. But why is this? In all the cases I have encountered, these people don't care about Jesus because they have been wounded, abandoned, and violated by those who professed to be followers of Jesus. So who, in the end, are these people rejecting? I suspect that they are rejecting false representatives of Jesus, and not Jesus himself. So, when others from the Christian community come to journey intimately with these people on the margins, and are loved dearly by these people on the margins, who is being accepted? I suspect it is Jesus himself that is being accepted.
And let's remember that one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess the Lordship of Christ. Maybe, when all is said and done, nobody will reject Christ. And, if that's the case, then God will make all things new."
I believe that most Christians (including myself) are concerned with our own rights to get into heaven. We long for that day to enter the paradise and try our best to keep God's laws.
Yet we forget to keep the greatest command, to love God and love the ones around us.
Matthew 25:42-25 puts it real well.
"42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"
What if instead of focusing on ourselves and our righteousness, we focus on others who are in need for once. Spending time with people who are lonely and rejected, feeding the hungry, clothing the people who's got nothing to wear... maybe then, we might experience the true transformation in our faith and in our lives as well.
These things I've been struggling for the past couple of years, and it has been real difficult for me to live this out, but I'm constantly learning and trying.
I'm getting married in October (yipee!), and my future wife and I will be moving to Australia for a year. I don't know what this all means, and you may think that Australia doesn't seem in line with the countries in Africa and South Asia that are on the poverty line but I know that there are poor people everywhere. There are marginalised people in all countries.
I know that it doesn't make sense to travel half way across the world to a similar country like Canada to start this type of lifestyle. And I'm definitely aware of that Toronto has one of the highest homeless rate in North America. But what my fiancee and I are planning is more than just helping the needy... It's a NEW start for us.
I believe that being surrounded by families and friends who don't quite share the same values in regards to this matter can have an effect on us and could even hold us back from truly living the way God calls us to live.
I believe that by being in a new country, new surroundings and with only the clothes on our backs, we can start a new life, a life that is abundant and the life that produces fruit (instead of constantly striving to be 'perfect').
So I'm waiting... until october comes. Being stuck here sucks... in an office... doing meaningless work, but I believe that God is teaching me... showing me... that this is NOT what I want to do for the rest of my life, that I'm desperate to live, live according to the call, to follow the one who calls me out of my comfort middle class life to truly journey with the poor, the marginalized and the rejected.
This is our calling...
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