Voice Box

extending family

For anyone who is an adoptive parent, in the process of adopting, or knows someone who is, you know that it is not an easy process.  There is paperwork, waiting, disappointment, multiple trips, and expensive fees.  Adoption is a beautiful and gracious way to grow a family, but these obstacles keep many families from extending their reach in this way.

On the other side of the story, adoption is becoming more and more difficult.  Just last month Guatemala has slowed, and even stopped, adoptions.  And I just found out that today Kazakhstan has halted all adoption proceedings.  There are thousands of children and parents waiting to meet each other, but these walls are dividing us.

Of the 143 million children living without parents, only .018% will be adopted.  This low figure won't even chart.  So for many children - and more all the time if the trends in Guatemala and Kazakhstan continue - coming into a forever family is not a realistic option.

So what can we do?

We can take family to them.  We can't bring them to family, but we can take family to them!  Of course, nothing can replace a loving mom and dad in a safe home with healthy meals and saving faith.  But as the enemy claims victims, we must counterattack with a creative and compassionate strategy.  We can all extend our reach.  We can all offer holistic, long-term, and redemptive care to orphaned and abandoned children.

Go to Children's HopeChest or 5for50 to find out how your family can grow today!  You can extend your reach to give God's hope and practical help to a child in need!

with eyes of compassion (reflections on palm sunday)

I love a good party.  And I fully subscribe to Rob Bell's thought that Christians have nothing to say until we learn to throw better parties.  Just ask the 15 or 20 people we had over for dinner last night.  We like a good party.

But today - on Palm Sunday - we need to discern and engage what is going on beneath and behind the party as Jesus enters Jerusalem.

I felt, as Father Matt said, whiplashed during the service.  We started with much joy: an upbeat song, waving palm branches, shouting 'Hosanna!'  Then later in the service, during the Gospel reading, we are shouting with the crowds, 'Crucify him! Crucify him!'  It brought us all in touch with something fundamentally contradictory about the human experience.  We are made in God's image, made to know and love God, and be known by and loved by God.  But we are fallen and fragmented.  We often live in both crowds - the 'Hosanna' crowd and the 'Crucify him' crowd.

But what was Jesus thinking during all the commotion during his palm-branched ride into Jerusalem on a donkey?

As Jesus approached the city, he was overcome with compassion.  Jerusalem was a city of great need and little peace.  He saw this and wept.  The crowd was shouting.  It was a scene to behold.  But Jesus was looking with eyes of compassion.

As we enter Holy Week and are engaged and enchanted by the story of Christ's passion, may we look on those in need with eyes of compassion.

dancers who dance upon injustice

One of my favorite songs of the last 10 years is 'Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?' by Delirious.  The chorus calls for 'dancers who dance upon injustice.'  There are four factors in this 'dance' that stands out to me.

Community.   There are few things in life that are meant to be done alone.  God is community and we were created for community.  Therefore, in our work for justice, we must live in community.  Children's HopeChest offer holistic and long-term solutions to the needs of orphaned children.  I truly believe that for our work to be long-term it must be done in community.  Individuals change and individual circumstances change, but God's community is growing and giving life.  Live in community.

Creativity.  The challenges that poor and orphaned children face are immense.  Disease, civil war, domestic violence, addiction, poverty.  These almost seem like living, breathing entities.  So we cannot afford to be static and unimaginative in our work for justice.  We must prayerfully and courageously arrive at solutions that combat and overcome these very real enemies.  Be creative.

Joy.  It is one of my strongest convictions that I not tell only sad stories about what's going on with orphaned children around the world.  This would be easy to do.  The stories and statistics are enough to drop any of us to our knees.  But there's more.  There's God's Spirit already at work - hovering and covering the void and speaking life and light.  And there's a lot of fun to be had.  I've had some great times playing soccer with orphans in Russia and juvenile criminals in Honduras, and dancing and drumming with poor children in Ghana.  There is joy in compassion.  And dancing is a joyful activity.  Let's take joy in our work for justice.  Be joyful.

Movement.  To live for justice cannot be a passive and reactive effort.  This involves movement.  The Enemy is on the move, claiming victims in our neighborhoods and on God's planet every day.  We must be on the move.  Not running from need, but running toward it with a movement of compassion and care.  Join the dance.

As we dance upon injustice, remember that we must be in community, we must be creative and joyful, and we must be on the move.

mourning the death of an orphan

One of our own was recently lost.  His life was taken tragically.  We received word about the funeral and burial from some of our Russian staff.  This is a sobering yet inspiring moment.  Please go to Tom Davis' blog to read about it: Who Mourns the Death of an Orphan?

why do the innocent suffer?

I could begin this post by proving to you that their is pain and suffering in the world.  I could tell you stories from Russian orphanages and poor African villages.  I could tell you stories form our own neighborhoods and my own life.  But I don't think you need convinced.  You know there is pain.  This is a much longer post than I normally write, but this topic is much more intense.  As we read and consider these things, let's remember that there is deep hunger in the world and that we are called to take a cup of cold water to those in need, those who are suffering.

SO MUCH PAIN!

There is so much pain, so much suffering, so many innocent people being mutilated by this seemingly senseless and painful life.  Where is God!?  Can’t anyone rescue us?  Can’t anyone stop this? 

David Hume, a philosopher, says this about God: “Is he willing to prevent evil, but not able?  Then he’s impotent.  Is he able to prevent evil, but not willing?  Then he’s malevolent.  Is he both willing and able to prevent evil?  Then where does evil come from?”  Where is God?  Who is God?

THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES

There isn’t an easy answer.  There isn’t a quick fix to this problem of pain.  Perhaps that’s why we came up with stupid little mind-numbing tricks to help us feel better about ourselves.  Let me give you some examples.  Have you heard this one before?  I’ll pray for you.  Don’t get me wrong.  I believe in prayer.  I believe that it’s powerful, and I believe that communion with God is one of the most significant things we can do as humans, but does saying that really help?  Does it really make the pain go away to know that people are praying?  How about this one?  That which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Do you believe that?  Do you think that really helps millions of innocent victims?  Yes, the Bible does say that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God, but that still doesn’t seem to answer this huge question.  The Bible also says that testing brings about perseverance in our lives, which makes us mature.  But does that really answer this question: Why do the innocent suffer?

REMOVE GOD?

The simplest and quickest answer, then, must be that there is no God.

But listen: this still doesn’t solve the problem.  Removing God from the equation does not eliminate pain and suffering.  Removing God does not make pain and suffering easier to endure.  Removing God does not somehow shift this twisted world toward justice – where only the evil suffer, and the so-called innocent live in ecstasy. 

Brian McLaren says it this way: “In the face of this profound question, some feel they can ‘solve the problem’ by removing God.  Such desperation is understandable when victims of rape, torture, oppression, natural catastrophe, random accidents, or devastating disease raise their fists to heaven crying, ‘Why?  Why?’  One can’t help but sympathize with the grief and rage that lead to this rejection of God.  But what is one left with, having removed the God-factor from the equation?  Now, the suffering is no less tragic.  There is no hope of it being rendered meaningful or transcendent, redemptive or redeemable, since no interventions in this life or reparations in an afterlife are possible.  True, there is no God to blame, but is that so great a consolation?  Neither is there a God to reach out to for strength and comfort and a higher perspective.  There is no God to make meaning of the madness; there is only madness.”

If there’s no meaning to this life, why does the presence of pain and suffering, why does injustice trouble us so much?  It hurts and confounds us because we know there’s something more.  We are all appealing to a universal sense of justice, a sense of goodness.  Why else would we care so much?  Why else would this be the single greatest philosophical question, the single greatest theological question known to humankind?

So we don’t have to remove God from the equation.  And why?  Because the Bible doesn’t remove suffering and pain from the equation.  Have you ever read the Psalms?  Have you read the story of Job?  Have you read the story of Jesus’s life and death?  Do you know much about what the Apostle Paul went through?  The Bible does not run from this subject.  Actually, pain and suffering runs all through the Bible.  Why?

STORY

C.S. Lewis said that our lives are like a story, a drama, a journey.  The Bible, and for that matter, the history of the world, is the Story of God’s love affair with people.  And what do we know of Story?  What do we know of Drama?  That there are characters and a plot; there is conflict and resolution; there is romance and betrayal; there are battles and love scenes. 

And the kicker is that we are not spectators, we are active participants.  This Story, this Cosmic Drama is about God and God's creation.  But it’s not easy, is it?  There are no commercial breaks, no intermissions, no stunt doubles, no version edited for television or formatted to fit your screen.  Perhaps that’s what makes this so difficult.  We’re thrust into the action in a pretty bloody story.  A Story.

A REAL STORY.

And this Story is real.  It moves from a REAL beginning to a REAL end.  Here is where, in a lot of ways, darkness enters the story.  We are not lines of code, we are not video games.  God is not a computer programmer.  And God is not a tyrant.  God is not a fascist dictator.  God does not force God's love on us.  God’s not a rapist.  What it means to be real is that we have a choice.  But there is a dark side.  We can all walk away.  We can all use our choice to hurt others, and many people do.  Then why doesn’t God just destroy all evil and be done with it and we can go on living our lives as shiny, happy people?

STAND BACK

Why doesn’t God destroy all evil?  Because if we’re honest with ourselves, none of us would be left standing.  Early on in the Christian story, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve make a choice that ushers in the first pain and suffering that humans ever experienced.  And we’ve all been inflicting pain on others ever since.  None of us would be left standing if God just destroyed all evil.  But that’s not the only reason.  He doesn’t just press the ‘obliterate’ button and end it all because that's way too shortsighted.  And there’s way too much going on in this Story, in this Drama for a stupid ending like that.  Think of a mosaic.  Standing back, taking in the whole piece of art, it is beautiful.  The colors and textures, the story.  It’s beautiful.  Get up real close, though.  Some of the tiles are dark and gray.  Some are smudged and cracked. 

THE REAL ANSWER

So what I am saying is that the answer for all the pain and suffering in the world is Story.  Not satisfied with that answer?  Well, let me give you the real answer. 

I don’t know.  I don’t have any idea.  Perhaps we could have addressed this question from an intellectual perspective and come up with a few ideas.  Yes, it is a story.  Pain is a major character in that story.  But that just doesn’t make the pain go away.  I don’t know.  I don’t know why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.  But... Only Christians can come to that realization, only Christians can leave that question unanswered without sliding into complete despair.  For two very important reasons.  Maybe the question I can try to answer for you is not why the innocent suffer, but how can we go on in the face of all this suffering?  Two reasons.

ADOPTION

The first is ADOPTION.  Read Romans 8:15-17.  Everything God gives to Christ is ours too!?  We’re co-heirs and it is definitely a healthy inheritance.  We can be adopted into God’s family.  Well, let me tell you something about our big brother, about Jesus Christ.  He wrapped himself up in skin and bones.  He moved into the neighborhood.  He’s been there.  He’s well acquainted with suffering.

Dorothy Sayers puts it this way: “For whatever reason, God chose to make us as he has: limited, suffering, and subject to sorrow and death.  He had at least the honesty and courage to take his own medicine.  Whatever game God is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and he has played fair.  He can exact nothing from us that he has not exacted from himself.  He has himself gone through the whole range of human experience: from the trivial irritations of family life, and the cramping restrictions of hard work, the lack of money, and poverty, to the absolute worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, betrayal, despair, and death.  When God became a man, he played the man.  He was born in poverty and he died in disgrace and he thought it well worthwhile to do it.”

Shortly after September 11th, I saw three very prominent religious leaders being interviewed by Larry King.  They were being asked the very same questions we’re addressing tonight.  Where is God in all of this?  What does God have to say about this madness?  One of them offered a helpful perspective.  He said that God was not in the terrorists, he was not in the highjackers.  Good.  That’s a good start.  He said that God was in the firefighters, in the rescue workers.  That’s good.  There’s a lot of truth to that.  But I’ve learned something even more amazing – even more comforting - since then.  An image is burned on my mind from all the ugliness of that day.  It is of two people, a man and a woman, holding hands, leaping from the building.  Falling to certain death.  You know what?  I think God was in one of them.  Maybe it was Jesus Christ himself who took one of those people by the hand and took with them the scariest step of their life.  He knows this ship is sinking, he knows this building is on fire.  He’s not too arrogant and distant to leave us alone.  He has the honesty and courage to take his own medicine, to leap to certain death with us.  He’s with us. 

HOPE

The second reason that only Christians can face the problem of suffering without sliding into despair is HOPE.  Read Romans 8:17-25.  There is something we are looking toward - it is the kingdom of heaven come to earth.

GOD IS GOOD.  YOU CAN TRUST GOD.

I think, perhaps, that the question that haunts us all isn’t “Why do the innocent suffer?”  Maybe it’s more selfishly, more personally, “Why do I suffer?  What does God care about my suffering?  About my pain?  Is God good?  Can I trust God?”  Yes.  God is good.  You can trust God.  Why?  Because God is willing to adopt you into God's family.  A family built on hope!

follow along on another trip through Russia

Jerry Kaufman has just returned from Russia.  Follow along on his journey of compassion as he blogs about the trip.  http://edgeofcenter.wordpress.com/