“Heaven have mercy on us all — Presbyterians and pagans alike — for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.”– Herman Melville (from Moby Dick)
Archives for 2005
Could you Pray this Prayer?
“God, I don’t love you and I don’t love people. I can’t. I’m not capable of it. But you are. So, I would like to trade my inability to love with your ability to love. Amen.”
IT’S ONLY A QUARTER!Several years ago a preacher moved to Houston, Texas. Some weeks afterhe arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to thedowntown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver hadaccidentally given him a quarter too much change.As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, you better give thequarter back. It would be wrong to keep it. Then he thought, “Oh,forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this littleamount? Anyway the bus company already gets too much fare; they willnever miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet.”When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handedthe quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.”The driver with a smile, replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town?I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I justwanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.”When my friend stepped off the bus, he literally grabbed the nearestlight pole, and held on, and said, “O God, I almost sold your Son for aquarter.”Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.
Alternative Story
“Ivan Illich was once asked what is the most revolutionary way to change society.
Is it violent revolution or is it gradual reform? He gave a careful answer. ‘Neither. If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story.'”
Learning How to Live
One of my best friends is 66 years-young. He lives in an unconventional reality–one that has been breathed into him through life…and death.
He desires to honor his World War II buddies even though he didn’t go to war. He has.
He has a vision to celebrate his friends on his birthday. He does.
He wanted to have live Jazz music at his wife’s funeral and celebrate her life. They did.
He bought me golf clubs because he thought it would be a great way for me to get in the lives of other guys. It has.
The name of his very successful company is PTLA (Praise the Lord Always). They do.
He heard an African American Jazz singer at a club one night and decided that he was going to help make this man’s musical dreams come true. They are.
Jesus becomes real to people because of him. He doesn’t invite them into an institution or a religion. He invites them into a Way of life that is better.
I get the privilege of watching this man live–I follow Jesus better because of him.
Can One (American) Man Defeat Poverty in Africa?
Below is the response of a friend of mine named Tim who is the director of a mission organization that equips and empowers Latin Americans to love and serve Muslims into the Kingdom. The response was provoked from Christianity Today’s picture of (possibly digitally enhanced) Rick and Kay Warren amongst a sea of Rhwandan children. The caption of the picture says the following: “Rick Warren has a sweeping plan to defeat poverty.”
Tim writes…
A picture is worth a thousand words. The thousand words inside (CT Oct 2005) about Rick Warren’s PEACE plan proclaimed a “tsunami-like paradigm change” in missions.
But the paradigm behind the “thousand word picture” outside the magazine doesn’t seem very different from the one that guided 19th Century European missionaries. They thought they had what it would take to design and deliver a “Christian solution” to Africa’s problems (it turned out to be more “Western” than “Christian”).
With the light on the cover focused on a white man and his wife, we are offered hope that 21st Century American Christians now have what it takes. We are asked to believe that we can use our leadership to fix Africa’s poverty by being rich enough, influential enough and by sharing our technology.
Whether the paradigm will work the second time around, I don’t know. A truly changed paradigm might propose that true Christian hope for the West, indeed, for the world, depends more on the obedient initiatives of African Christians living at the margins of world influence than on globalizing our unique brand of California Christianity (I include myself, 4th generation Californian).
Medieval Northern Europe was shaped more by God’s work among the poor and “pagan” Irish living at the margins of political and ecclesiastical power than by the theological and political influence of wealthy Roman Christianity.
In Africa, God is already shaping and forming a new church, teaching His people there to love the unlovely, raising up the next generation of our world’s Christian leaders while making Himself known to millions in the midst of war, tribalism, suffering and poverty.
Let us pray the fruit of God’s work there won’t be drowned in a Tsunami of our own making!
Timothy Halls
[email protected]
www.pminternacional.org
A Hero Passes
Rosa Parks died yesterday. Racism broke her heart so God used her to do something about it. What breaks your heart?