we now conclude our broadcasting day

One of the most difficult, and yet most comforting, realities in life is that all things have a beginning and an end. There is an unspoken and wondrously natural progression. Purposes are fulfilled and the life then fades away. Some things last longer than others and some seemingly go much too soon. Still, all things have an ending. I find the endings most beautiful when those things, having satisfied what they were created to do, quietly fade away.

darkness into light

So, one last time, "why darkness into light?"

One reader found a connection between Hasidic-Reggae artist Matisyahu and the blog title. Others, we can only assume, created their own realities (or more likely never gave it much thought).



The truth is that the blog title was dually influenced by the bible and a certain Matisyahu song.

The bible-writer John, in particular, talks a lot about darkness and light. Never is it more profound than when Jesus drops “I am the light of the world” on everyone in John 8:12. He goes on to say that, “whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John later says that whoever wishes to be in the light must "walk as Jesus walked."

So, I think, in a very simple way, that is the essence of the blog title. Jesus is light of the world. And we can feed hungry kids, but it won’t satisfy them. We can bring water to the parched lips of the desperate here, but that will never quench their thirst. The only thing that will last is Jesus, the light. And so, we seek darkness (injustice, oppression, poverty – spiritual, physical, or otherwise) and we seek to bring the light to it.

A second, much more subtle idea that sits behind the blog title does indeed come from Matisyahu and his song “Warrior”. As a Hasidic Jew (read: orthodox – Google it), Matisyahu raps about some very deep, profound subjects. He also shares our history through the Torah.

During a performance of this song, he took a minute to explain where the idea came from:

“Hasidis explains that everything in this world, everything in this life has an inner essence and an inner soul. And when it started out, before the soul was reincarnated into this life, into this body and time and place that we find ourselves…it was basking above in the rays of Godliness. And it comes into this world for one reason, you know: that it should transform the darkness into light. It should take the darkness of this world and make it light…”

Now, the word “reincarnated” scares a lot of people. But this isn’t the idea that I will die and come back as a gerbil or a carburetor or something in my next life. This is the idea that our soul was known to God before our physical bodies existed on this earth. This is the idea that somehow, we existed with Him in paradise and that He has hidden that beauty and that “light” deep within us. It is this idea that leads many Christians today to believe that when we encounter “Truth” (i.e. God’s glory in Jesus), we know it to be true not because of some evidence or emotional experience, but because we “remember” it.

So, Matisyahu quotes an idea that says that we are known to God and He sends us into the world in order to bring the darkness into the light, in order to bring glory back to His name.

There are Bible passages that correspond. Check Ecclesiastes 3:11… “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

“He has set eternity in the hearts of men…” That is a really rich idea: That, somehow, we know what eternity is like. That maybe the reason that no amount of money or sex or power or status can please us is because we know of something (somewhere in the depths of our soul) that surpasses all of those things. Somewhere, God has set eternity and its beauty within us. Mysteriously beautiful…

2 Corinthians 4:6 says this: “For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,'made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

God made His light to shine in our hearts. Is that incredible to you? It freaks me out. God did this to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ? I cannot even fathom the glory of God, much less that somewhere within me I possess the knowledge of it. Like I said, mysteriously beautiful…

Darkness into light...

bafana bafana versus senegal

South Africa came into tonight's game with Senegal almost assured that they would be out of the tournament. They had to win BIG and get help from other teams to move on...

Well, they played valiantly in their first game away from Tamale, Ghana (Mmm, Tamales...), but only managed a 1-1 draw. Bafana managed to threaten to score the whole game, hitting the cross bar and every other surface but the back of the net. Oh, well. We'll see them again in 2010.

bring out your dead

January is now officially drawing to a close. We leave for Cape Town tomorrow (see post below) and then for Kruger Park next Thursday (Google it). We are worn out and very ready to get away for a holiday. Very excited...

You heard it here. We're not dead yet. In fact, I feel happy...



:)

on to cape town

Stef and I leave for Cape Town tomorrow. We have been anticipating this holiday for a long time. We are going to sleep in a nice bed in a nice hotel. We are going to go to the beach. We are going to have seafood in a nice restaurant. We are going to be in heaven.


What we are most excited about is strange, almost embarrassing. We are excited to be going to the airport - for ourselves. Since arriving in South Africa, we have been shuttling foreign missionaries to and from the airport to the tune of about a dozen round trips at this point. It can be exhausting (the airport is not close) and it can be discouraging. We get to see the relieved faces of foreigners anxious to return home walking assuredly through to their terminals while we return to the roaches and the power outages. Well, not this time. We are getting on a plane (a Mango Airlines plane!!) and going somewhere nice ourselves - and it feels good!! We are excited to go through security. We are excited to wait on our baggage. And we are excited to do something a little out of the ordinary. And all of that begins when we drive to the airport and actually get on a plane ourselves.

crazy games

Our new favorite Tv show is called Crazy Games. It is basically an excuse to put people in ridiculous costumes and set them up for spectacular falls and terrible spills.

Men in giant chicken costumes try to run against an oversized turntable. Women in flippers try to run down a moving slip'n slide while carrying buckets full of water. Men in oversized snail outfits have to ride bikes through an obstacle course.

Impossible to describe. Funniest show ever.




c

unchristian

You, the readers of this blog, are a diverse bunch. You come from all over the world (including Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Italy, Britain, and France last week) and you come from all types of backgrounds. You are business-people and church-people, yoga-lovers and couch potatoes, rich and poor, young and old, etc...

And I must admit that I think of those of you who I don’t know to be Christians more than the others – not to influence you or persuade you, but to do my best to keep from misrepresenting what I claim to believe. Really, I want to avoid influencing you at all costs. There are enough people selling half-baked, man-made, eternal life schemes out there. I sometimes sit back and hope that somewhere a group of folks are having a discussion about how irritating Christians are and you’ll mention that you know at least one who seems to be somewhat different, even though his proclivity to write about the rain and the fog is, admittedly, a bit vexing.

And that is not to say that I hope to blend in. I probably couldn’t if I tried. I just want to avoid being one more reason for people to say (as Gandhi did) “I would consider following Jesus if not for the Christians.”

All of this to say...

I am reading this book called unChristian. It is the result of years of research into what non-believers (in particular those aged 16-29) think of Christians.

And it confirms all of my worst fears. Christians are seen as hypocritical, overly political, judgmental, intolerant, argumentative, irrelevant, and generally out of touch. What I did find some solace in were the numbers that showed that Christians of the same age felt the same way towards, well, themselves.

We find ourselves to be hypocritical, judgmental, overly political, intolerant, argumentative, irrelevant, and generally out of touch. At least we can be honest, huh? Ashamed, but honest.

We see clearly that we Christians have become decidedly, well, unChristian.

The reasons that people avoid Christians are the same reasons that we find ourselves embarrassed at times to call ourselves such. We’ve hijacked Jesus and turned Him into a bumper-sticker or a way to sell CDs or a way to make all of our co-workers and friends uncomfortable.

In fact, as the book points out, Christians have become famous for what they oppose (don’t make me name them – abortion, Islam, homosexuality, media, liberals, and on and on) rather than who it is they are for (namely this loving, merciful, graceful, sacrificial, tolerant man named Jesus).

And it becomes difficult to get around those things, especially for Christians who don’t fit the stereotype. I hesitate to tell people we are missionaries for the simple reason that missionaries have a negative connotation, being thought of as folks knocking on doors trying to convert every man, woman, and child. I tell people we are on a justice mission, trying to redistribute some of America’s wealth. I say that we are representing some people from America who recognize that the world’s poor are our responsibility. I say anything to avoid saying we are Christian missionaries.

We’re not ashamed of who we are. We simply know that too many people have been burned by religious nuts and political fanatics to give any credibility to someone traveling around the world promoting religion.

Am I rambling?

Here is what I guess I am getting at: We Christians have jacked a lot of things up and we have flipped out priorities around to such a degree that we turn Jesus into a capitalist and a republican from the suburbs and we sleep soundly as we have made God in our glorious image.

I would issue a blanket apology to all those who have had to deal with us in that manner, but that would be less than genuine. I don’t know who thinks what about whom. So I’ll save the canned apology and tell you that I honestly consider you when I write, if only to be a voice in the wilderness reminding people that radical love can be liberal, tolerant, merciful and all about Jesus at the same time (as I pray we are).

What I do know for sure, thanks to this book, is that Christians have a lot of work to do (and undo) before anyone will look at us for what we are supposed to represent (love of Jesus) as opposed to what we have come to represent: overly political, judgmental, intolerant, argumentative, irrelevant, and generally out of touch folks. As a start, we have to abandon our attitude that says, "I don't care what they think of me" and adopt the attitude of "How does what they think of me reflect a reality that I need to change?"

If we truly desire to be the light, we must walk as Jesus walked...