It's already been one year. He was supposed to have turned 21 yesterday. But I'm sure the party up there was matchless.
Some would say he was foolish. Foolish for cutting short his youth to enlist and put his neck on the line. Foolish for leaving his family and friends. Foolish for seemingly being reckless in wanting to serve the country. But in the words of a wise man, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Some would say his life was wasted. Only 20 years young, with an entire future ahead of him. But he did something that many fail to achieve in a lifetime. He found his purpose. That is hardly a wasted life.
All would say he left his mark. And his legacy continues.
Somewhere along the lines, I bought into lies. The only way God could use me was...
if I just prayed harder
if I just read the Bible more
if I just read more Christian books
if I just listened to holier songs
if I just went to more church activities
if I just spent more time with people
if I just knew everything of God
if I just more articulated in speech
if I just stopped lying
if I just fast and pray
if I just talk about God all the time
if I just clung to my Christian friends
Somewhere along the lines, I bought into more lies. God can't use me...
because I am shy
because I am skinny
because I am a poor speaker
because I'm not smart
because I have skeletons in my closet
because I am self-righteous
because I am proud
because I am stubborn
because I am average
because I lack self-confidence
because I am ugly.
But then God says...
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, not by works
my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness
you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light
you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir
you were once lost, but now you are found
there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
We are taught that humanity is intrinsically good, that the evil deeds people are prone to commit is a direct result of external circumstances. I'm sure external circumstances contribute to some of the worst atrocities the world will ever see. But I cannot agree that people are inherently good. All evidence points to the contrary, and we look towards blaming other things to remove the guilt from our conscience.
For instance, take a look at this article from the New York Times. There is an epidemic that is hitting the population of Congo. The rate of incidents of women being raped is escalating at an extraordinary pace. A group called the Rastas are "notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up anybody who gets in their way." I wonder how many sociologists, anthropologists, and others would say that this is a product of culture, war, poverty, etc. I venture to guess that the majority of them would. And that is the sad thing. We have become too intellectually "superior" to admit our own depravity and justify the horrific, inhumane activities of mankind.
What good is a government that cannot protect its own citizens? The Congolese armed forces deserve to be put on trial for crimes against humanity and its participation in systematically terrorizing and raping women. No citizens should fear for their own safety by those that have been called to protect and serve the country. It is a sad story that these kinds of widespread stories are not received by outrage by the international community. Somewhere between the news of Brittany Spears losing custody of her children and Pamela Anderson's wedding in Las Vegas, real newsworthy stories are lost. How sad humanity is.
It's pretty crazy what is happening in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma. There is a growing, defiant yet peaceful revolution under way in the streets of Yangon and Mandalay, the two largest cities. It is the first of its kind since the democracy-activists demonstrated against the military regime in 1988. That democratic revolt was quickly crushed by military force with hundreds of students and activists brutally massacred. Yet in 1990, the military government allowed for elections, in which the National League of Democracy won 60% of the popular votes and elected Aung San Suu Kyi as Prime Minister. The military refused to acknowledge the result of the elections and refused to handover power to the NLD. Instead, they put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and imprisoned many of the NDL's leaders.
For nearly two decades, the people of Myanmar have suffered under brutality of General Than Shwe. Economic conditions have worsened over time, leaving the majority of the people in abject poverty. Fears of political repercussions have squelched any political dissidents from opposing the military junta, and international condemnation and outcry have produced little movement for democratic liberalization. Aung San Suu Kyi has been the rallying point of human rights activists in Southeast Asia, the heroine of democracy in Myanmar.
In August of 2007, the start of the revolution took place with the junta's policy decision to increase the price of gasoline. Citizens, already burdened with the inability to afford much, were outraged at the price hike, and took to the streets to demonstrate against the policy. The military swiftly cracked down on the thousands, unleashing government-backed mobs to disperse the crowds and imprison leaders. However, Gen. Than Shwe underestimated the latest demonstrations. Soon thereafter, Burmese monks took up the cause and marched throughout major cities. Buddhist monks are well-respected, even with the military junta, and command a great deal of respect from all citizens. To violently crackdown on the monks would permanently cause catastrophic damage to the junta's PR. And so, cities like Mandalay have seen tens of thousands of monks march against the ruling government, and the government's hands are tied.
What happens next is up in the air. But for the first time in nearly two decades, the prospects of a liberal democracy in power in Myanmar look hopeful. Perhaps this ought to be an insight for future U.S. foreign policy-making decisions. Rather than forcefully imposing liberal democracy via a unilateral coup d'etat, perhaps rallying and supporting vocal leaders in those sovereign nations to overthrow radical theocracies and undemocratic elements would be the way to best win the hearts of the Middle East. Just a thought.
People at HMCC have heard this term so much in the past couple of years. Leaders are beat over the head with this terminology without allowing for the meaning to settle in and register. I wonder how many of the leaders and, consequently, the members of the church fully understand what it means to be incarnational in ministry. The term, still not officially a word in the dictionary by the way, is veiled in mystery and vagueness that is loosely thrown out by everyone and anyone.
I wonder if there is one concrete definition of the term. Regardless, I've recently begun reading Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz," a book that I kind of pushed aside from reading until now. The prose is surprisingly well-written, and his style engages his audience effectively. In any case, he writes about a story he once heard from someone. I don't remember the exact details of the story, but it dealt with a hostage crisis that lasted a long time. Finally, the U.S. Navy Seals were sent on a covert rescue mission to extract the hostages out. When they got there, the hostages would not budge. The hostages had been subjected to torture and other atrocities which prevented them from trusting these Seals. With time running out and the hostages not responding, one of the Seals took drastic measure to rescue the hostages. He took off his mask and got real close to the hostages, close enough that the hostages would feel their humanity. With that, the hostages slowly warmed up, and soon enough, they were out of their.
To me, this pretty much encapsulates the word, "incarnational." It is to remove any barrier to the people and allow them to see Christ's humanity through your humanity. It is to be close to the people for them to experience Christ through you.
It's been six years. Everything has changed; but not really. The world is a mightily different place since that day when commercial airplanes became weapons of mass destruction. But not really.
The lives of the families affected have changed. Six years later, they are without a son, a daughter, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a husband, a wife, a friend, a loved one. Their pain lies deep down inside the construction site of the future Freedom Tower.
Security has changed. Lines at the airports are longer. Random searches are more frequent. Borders and ports are supposedly tighter. Communication lines are legally tapped. There is a price to freedom.
But what else has changed? Fundamental Islam continues to gain steam in regions across the world. Osama continues to send out videotapes encouraging a caravan of martyrs against the West. Americans have, more or less, returned to their pre-9/11 way of life. Downtown New York City is vibrant again with a huge influx of new business and more money. Life has indeed gone on.
Regardless, it is the 6th anniversary of that fateful morning. And with this anniversary, I'm reminded to keep a fresh perspective on the value of life.
All the years since AMI was formed, I had heard the idea of church planting so often. And I can honestly say that I didn't fully understand why AMI chose to focus so much on planting churches as a means of doing missions. It's not that I didn't believe in it. It's just that I couldn't really see it. I had no basis to concretely put church planting as an important means to further the work of Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice for the nations.
This past summer, I had the opportunity to go to a second summer missions trip with HMI. Three summers after my first trip to Cambodia and Thailand, I thought that this was the best time to go abroad once more to solidify a burden for missions work in Asia. We went to China not knowing what type of ministry that our team would be participating in and/or how everything would look like when we got to the field. But when we got there and got involved with the ministry that the local missionaries were participating in, especially the work in western China, the correlation of church planting and missions became clearer.
Where we stayed, there were no signs of a viable disciple-making indigenous community of believers. In a region where there are only a few hundred believers scattered among a population of ten million, the lack of a viable church became a stumbling block for at least a few people we met and shared the Gospel with. For them, their religious identity was tied in with their ethnic identity, that it was hard for them to accept the Truth. They had never met anyone in their own community who chose to believe in Jesus Christ, and therefore, they could not, in their conscience, choose to abandon what they had grown up with.
It is in this environment that missionaries we interacted with gave us a picture of what AMI had been reiterating over and over again. AMI's paradigm for missions work is to send out kingdom workers (foreign missionaries) to places in order to plant churches that'll raise up indigenous workers who can reach out to their own people group. I'm beginning to understand how church planting fits into the global perspective of missions, and perhaps this is how I will be involved in one form or another in participating in world missions, to be a part of a team of church planters who will go and start something.
"When dictators think of 22,000 students, they think of what you might do. When power is threatened, it is students who are feared. When power is threatened, dictators don't shut down the commercial districts; they close the schools. Students change the world. Students threaten what is because they have an anticipation of what might be and what should be. And from time to time, they have been relentless about pursuing it and the world changes." - Sarah Cohn, lawyer from the International Justice Mission (Urbana 2006)
With the new academic school year underway, I thought it'd be appropriate to start off a new blog talking about the student population, particularly college undergraduates. People continue to ask me why I remain in Ann Arbor and persist in doing college ministry. The only answer I can give is that God has placed a burden for me to stay and to invest in the future generations for the time-being.
The university has always been the perfect breeding ground for revolutionary thought. In an environment where the world's smartest people gather, new ideas are bound to be birthed. And it is during these formative years where students are shaped into the next generation of leaders who can change the world. This is the place where the future is limitless, where anything is possible. And what better place to invest in than at the campus of a major university.
God met me powerfully here at the University of Michigan and changed the trajectory of my life. And it is my desire that others experience the same life-change on this campus. That is why I've stayed for one more year. This is why I persist in doing college ministry. Students change the world.
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