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An email exchange yesterday brought to mind one of my favorite podcasts from The God Journey, about the critical things God seems to need to help shape our lives as vessels of his love and care.  These come from Tom Mohn, a dear friend of mine from Tulsa, OK.  I don’t think God has to orchestrate these things, they just seem to come out of this broken world and the passions of our own flesh.  But these are the life experiences that can help shape our hearts if we let Jesus bring his love to us in the midst of them.  

The first is the only good one of the bunch.  According to Tom we need a good, solid success that affirms to us that God is working in our lives and that we are learning to be fruitful in his kingdom.  Without that we seem to struggle to perform out of our own insecurities.  

The second is a massive dose of failure where we get caught up in something so totally wrong, or with the wrong attitude, or with an irresponsible arrogant judgment against someone that gets exposed.  There we’ll learn the power of his forgiveness and learn not to put any confidence in our own wisdom or flesh.  

The third is that we each need to be involved with a significant heresy—to believe something with all of our heart that turns out to be completely wrong.  When we find God’s love there we will never be tempted again to force any of our views down someone else’s throat.  We’ll be able to walk in truth without arrogance and treat others, especially those who disagree with us, with gentleness.  

Finally, according to Tom, we need an intimate betrayal, where someone so close to our heart turns on us in a way that causes hurt at a level we cannot put into words.  When God’s love touches us there we will come to know the fellowship of his sufferings, which will give us compassion for the broken and will never be tempted to betray anyone else for the rest of our lives.  

Obviously these are things we cannot fulfill on our own.  I’m not even suggesting you go out looking for a massive dose of failure, a powerful heresy to embrace, or even someone to betray you.  But if you’ve known failure, advocated some theological view you later found out to be wrong, or have been betrayed by someone you love deeply, realize that this is excellent ground for God to do some of his best work in you.  Those things don’t have to destroy you; they can draw you into a better space with God that will help you find real fruitfulness for the remainder of your journey.  

We seem to think God only uses the good things in our lives, when we made the right choice or laid down our lives at some critial juncture.  Tom takes a different perspective at the kind of things we need in our lives to help us come to a place of freedom and humility that let’s God’s life shine out of ours… 

If you want to hear the original podcast you can use the link here to the The Things God Uses.  It was only the fourth podcast we ever did and we were just finding our way, but the insights in this podcast have come up over and over again in my life and in my conversations with others.  Also Tom is coming out with a book about his journey that seems to make him the Forrest Gump of evangelicalism, crossing paths with Martin Luther King, Jr., Oral Robers, and Gene Edwards among others.  I’ve read it and it’s wonderful. I will let you know about it when it is published.  Until then you can check out his website here.  

You cannot turn on the news today and not be confronted with the images of Nelson Mandela as the world mourns his passing and celebrates the legacy of healing that he fostered in South Africa.  Since my first visit there, I’ve been deeply touched by his story.  Everyone I met in South Africa, both black and white, talked about Mandela with such awed appreciation for his leadership and his compassion in bringing South African out of the dark, dark days of apartheid.  At the airport I purchased his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom and devoured it on the nineteen-hour flight back home so I could better understand what he and that country had gone through.  It still remains one of the best books I’ve ever read. 

Risking his life to battle the oppression of apartheid he was captured, tried, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government, and sentenced to life imprisonment.  How easily it would have been to fester in bitterness at the white settlers that had ravaged his country for themselves and repressed the indigenous people. Whites comprised only 10% of the population, but held all the power and wealth and had to resort to brutal policies to do so.

What would happen if blacks were to be empowered in South Africa? Would they seek vengeance and terrorize the whites as had happened in other areas of Africa?  Nelson Mandela had already considered these questions with his colleagues in prison and came to some surprising conclusions.   Having spent most of his adult life in prison at hard labor he emerged from that experience not seeking vengeance, but knowing that for South Africa to survive he had  “to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.”  He knew both were robbed of their humanity when human freedom was restricted. 

When he had every reason to lead a movement that would have violently taken power and wealth from the white community, he had a broader view of freedom.  “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”  He was instrumental in shaping post-apartheid South Africa through reconciliation between blacks and whites based on truth and forgiveness and became its first democratically elected president.  He truly is the father of contemporary South Africa.

I heard a newsman say last night in a story about Nelson Mandela’s death, that he was the last, true hero and that made me sad.  I hope that isn’t true, but I certainly don’t know of an international leader that does not use power to polarize people, rather than invite them to reconciliation and collaboration.  Perhaps our next Mandela is now sitting in a prison somewhere forging his views of humanity and leadership. 

I find myself overwhelmingly grateful today that Nelson Mandela lived among us, especially for my South African friends.  He was undoubtedly one of the most transcendent figures of our time and left us with a powerful example of how former enemies can find a way to live together in peace.  We do well to celebrate his life and his courage to do what few others would have done. Honestly, it will not be easy for me to watch world leaders over the next few days glom onto the Mandela legacy as if they share his values and passion.  None of them do.  They will bask in the glory of his accomplishments so they won’t actually have to follow his lead in risking power for a greater common good.     

I submit that we celebrate his life best when we actually embrace the ideals he lived by:  The best change comes from honesty, forgiveness, and reconciliation rather than using whatever power we have to benefit ourselves at someone else’s expense.  No one is truly free until we all are free and it is all of our responsibility as people on this planet to fight for the freedom and opportunity for others that we most want for ourselves.  

I remember the first time I had even heard the notion.  It ran so counter to everything I had learned before.  “Jesus didn’t come to teach us about God; he came to show us how to live with his Father.”  It sounded true when I first heard it, but I had no idea how to process it.  As a young pastor at the time all I knew concepts and doctrines to help people understand God and from that they could deduce how to walk with him.  It all sounded good.  I had no idea how backward it really was.  

But it began to change the way I read the Gospels.  It made more sense that the writers gave so much room to his engagements with people.  I look back some thirty years later and realize that in this small statement a good friend had handed me a precious gift.  This life in Jesus is not about getting all the language right; it’s about simply recognizing how God wants to intersect with us.  

In two thousand years of Christian history we have molded the words of Jesus into a religion with all its doctrines, rituals, and rules.  We’ve told people that by following those pieces they could experience the life of God.  No wonder so many people are frustrated that their most ardent attempts don’t seem to let them in on the reality they crave for.  Jesus didn’t give us any of those things.  He walked with Father and invited us to join him there.  By doing so he made everything else tangential.  

I was reminded of this last week as I ran across this quote:  

“Christ did not establish any doctrine; he acted. He did not teach that there was redemption; he redeemed. Christ’s relationship to God, nature, and the human situation was conditioned by his activity. Søren Kierkegaard

Talk really is cheap.  No wonder Jesus preached so few sermons.  His life was his sermon, the way he touched people and let God’s work unfold in them.  He didn’t tell the woman at the well, Zaccheus, or Peter that they were loved; he loved them.  He didn’t parse out the theology of the atonement, he simply saved people from all the places where the world and religion had disfigured them.  

Imagine what the world would be like if we’d spent the last two thousand years not debating God’s character, the doctrines of salvation, eschatology, or the nature of the church, but instead learned to live alongside God as Jesus did—to enjoy his love and freely share it with others.  Unfortunately we can’t go back and unravel the mistakes of religion, but we can take a different course today.  We can turn down the words we use to tell others what they should think, and simply live it ourselves.  Instead of talking about love, we love.   Instead of talking about reconciliation, we reconcile.  Instead of talking about God, we lean into know him and let our lives unfold in him.  

Contentment.  She’s a great gift.  You can have a lot and not be content with it, always scheming for more and envious of those who have it.  And you can be content in the valley of the shadow of death, because you know you’re not alone even there and that better days and better times are still to come.  Even death is not final.

Contentment rises from the growing conviction that I am deeply loved and my whole life is in the hands of a loving Father.  Nothing is going on in my life today that escapes him and no matter how tragic circumstances might be, he can still work good in my life through it.  It means I don’t have to be afraid of the unknown and I don’t have to be in control to feel secure.  It embraces the reality that what is most important in life is the simple things in reach of us all—the hug of a loved one or a glimpse of beauty in the Creation.  It makes the best of what I already have and doesn’t waste time worried about what I don’t.   

Contentment lets me savor every joy, celebrate every friendship, enjoy each moment, and be grateful for the things that matter most.  It is an act of defiance for those advertising executives who want me frustrated with my existence so I’ll spend more money to try to find joy where joy cannot be found.  

Today in the States we celebrate Thanksgiving, a day to acknowledge God with gratefulness.  It used to be more meaningful to me when thanksgiving was a discipline I practiced.  Somehow I lossed that along the way.  Gratefulness surfaces in my heart now multiple times per day as a spontaneous awareness of God’s hand in the course of my day.  It’s not something I have to work at anymore.  It is just there now that I have lost my frustrations with life as I wanted it to be, and simply embraced it as it is.  I don’t expect life in a broken world to be fair. I no longer assume that living with integrity will get me ahead of those who lie and cheat, and that everyone who pretends to be my friend really is.  Call it cynical if you want, but losing my expectations and the naiveté that went with them didn’t leave me jaded, just willing to take life as it is and not demand all my desires be fulfilled in it.  As somone said, expectations are only resentments waiting to happen.     

No, all my days are not filled with joy and glitter.  Some are dark and painful, but I have come to discover that no matter how dark the day there is enough love, grace, and joy in it when you look beyond the darkness and realize something more important is going on than my temporal comfort or well-being.    

It now seems a bit silly to give a day to thanksgiving.  So I don’t think I’ll be more thankful today than I was yesterday, but I will enjoy a day and a home filled with people I love who get the day off to hang out with each other.  I hope your day has much joy in it as well and that you, too, are discovering the joy of contentment—the gift that keeps on giving!  

-Last year I recommended an e-novel that a friend of mine was working on.  It was called Within the Walls and actually was the first book of a trilogy.  You can read my review of the first book here.   This trilogy chronicles the life of Emilya Hoffman Bowes Brown—technological genius, collaborator in the newest wave of “tek” enhancements to hit the market, and creator of virtual vacations. In book one Emilya finds information that leads her on a journey to a community of dissidents who have chosen to live without technology, exposed to nature and the elements—something that was supposed to be impossible.

Book two, Breaking the Silence is the story of Emilya engagement with those people living outside the technological demands of the new world and talk about things like “faith” and “soul.” That disturbs her since her training suggests that humans are just biology and electricity.  Complications pile up for Emilya as she tries to deal with aspects of love and friendship that defy her carefully constructed idea of what it means to be alive.  Her life-long dependence on technology is shaken and with it the hope that we can achieve perfection and happiness in the safe, sterile environment technology provides.  But how much is she willing to risk, and will the protectors of the technological world find her and expose her new-found friends.

I love the tale Dr. Bennett spins as Emilya continues her journey caught between the rigid world of technology and the calling of the transcendent.  This is an engaging, thought-provoking, and deeply satisfying story of one woman’s struggle to define her life.  I enjoy how Dr. Bennett, a professor of communications, exposes the constant battle between the relational life we all hunger for and the desire to find safety in fitting into social norms that undermine that very hunger.  The application here goes far beyond technology and relationship, to the deeper issues of religion and faith.  And what’s more she throws in a bit of Jacques Ellul’s ideas and writing as part of Emilya’s unfolding story.

I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did.  I look forward to how she wraps this all up in the yet-to-be-written third story in the trilogy.

Both books are available now by e-book or by printed copy, though the printed copies are in such small quantities that they are a bit pricey.

Order it from Amazon.com

Order it from Wildflower Press

A lot has been happening in Kenya over the past few months and I want to take a moment here to give you an update.  I know how easily we can be fatigued with needs from overseas, but I have appreciated the number of you who have continued to carry this on your heart and were able to help us alleviate their suffering.  On my most recent trip I was asked multiple times about our friends in Kenya and how they are getting along.  I am so blessed to know that others have them on their hearts and minds as well.    And please, there is no guilt being offered here for people who haven’t helped financially.  I know that not everyone has the margin in their lives to carry this, nor extra resource at this point to help them out.  I do trust God to provide however he desires and am always overjoyed when he does.  Just the other day we received a sizeable donation to help us catch up with the ongoing need there and it wasn’t even in response to any recent information.  I love it when that happens because it doesn’t come from people who are motivated by anything other than what God has put on their hearts.  

As to the orphaned children themselves, we’ve been given an amazing gift to help these young lives overcome the tragic death of their parents to find their way in the world.  Yes, we realize God meant children to grow up in families, not institutions and have continued to encourage the Kenyans to think of this as transitional housing as they look for homes that could take in these children.  Unfortunately, the area is so impoverished that families can hardly care for their own children, much less others.  One family I know there has taken in 19 displaced children from the tribal violence and raising them as if they were their own.  It’s just not available to all the children, so we are caring for those we can.  Here is a recent picture they sent to thank the Lifestream family for being a conduit of God’s love and provision for them.  

A few months ago we took an offering to help get some clothes for the children.  They last about two years, but as with all our clothes, especially those you wear two or three times per week, they wear out quickly even as the children are growing out of them.  We had lots of people send money to help buy the clothes, which were made by people locally and recently delivered.  Here’s how some of those kids look in their new clothes:

Though the service station we helped them build as a way for them to help provide for the Living Loved Centre, it hasn’t been able to generate much income because the government closed the road for repairs shortly after completion.  It has not been re-opened yet due to torrential rains that have slowed construction. They are now hoping to re-open in early January. So the service station has only been able to help with local needs and has not made anywhere close to the income projected.  That has meant we have continued to carry the bulk of the financial load for the staff, provisions, and education of the children.  The good news is that when the road reopens it will be a major thoroughfare that will bring in lots of traffic. They are hopeful when that time comes not only will they be able to pay the staff, finance the orphanage, but also to meet other emergency needs that arise. 

One of those came this past week.  A wife of one of the staff members of the Living Loved Center was in her eighth month of pregnancy when the baby died in her womb.  It wasn’t discovered early enough and the infection had spread to her womb and her liver. By the time she got to the hospital she was in critical condition and despite their heroic attempts she passed away a few days later.    The hospital bill for the baby and the mother totaled over $1500.00 US.  In Kenya, they do not release the body until the hospital bill is paid in full.  I guess that is their form of health care, because family and friends will chip in what they have to help this man het his wife’s and his baby’s body out of the morgue.  They collected what they could in Kenya, and though I was amazed at what some of them were willing to give, it was not enough.  We sent the remaining amount needed as soon as we heard.  

It isn’t easy watching people you love suffer under such extraordinary conditions in a country so far away.  But keeping them in my heart and before you has been a blessing to me.  It widens my perspective about our own needs and struggles and sets them in a wider context that is helpful to gain perspective.  Thanks again for those who also hold these children in their hearts and for those who give what they can to help these young lives.  

As always, every dollar you send goes to the students themselves, we do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees.  If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.