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This video clip from U2′s Bono is amazing. If you are in the Church (especially if you are a pastor or church leader) prepare to have your toes stepped on. But Bono is right on. The Church should be setting the pace for everyone else to follow.
Check it out…
I love the closing words: “The world is more maleable than you think, and we can wrestle it from fools.” Let’s do some wrestling!
I believe of all people, Christ-followers should be able to do the most serious of work. But those who are in love with Jesus ought to be able to have the most fun too, as they enjoy the fullness of that relationship.
We proved this yesterday.
My loving congregation donated food for us to bless some needy people with Thanksgiving groceries. We then contacted our local elementary school to ask if they could recommend a couple of needy families to us. They did, but “needy” might be a major understatement. It was a joy to be able to deliver all of the Thanksgiving fixin’s to them, but heart-breaking to see the conditions in which they were living. I pray that this simple act of compassion will help open a door for further ministry opportunities.
Then we met with our Impact youth group for some serious fun (pictures are here). We had a carnival-like atmosphere with wild-and-messy games going on everywhere. I loved seeing our students dive into (sometimes literally) these fun events. It wasn’t just the students: Betsy challenged me to a pie eating contest. And let’s just say, apparently I have a bigger mouth than she does!
It’s great to address the serious conditions that surround us, and we should do so with love and hope. And it’s just as wonderful to have some fun. I believe that people who get stuck on either extreme are missing out on the fullness of a Christ-centered life.
I hope you have a seriously fun Thanksgiving celebration. And not just on Thursday this week, but all year long.
“For the minister is called to recognize the sufferings of his time in his own heart and make that recognition the starting point of his service. Whether he tries to enter into a dislocated world, relate to a convulsive generation, or speak to a dying man, his service will not be perceived as authentic unless it comes from a heart wounded by the suffering about which he speaks” (from the introduction).
Henri Nouwen was a man ahead of his time. Although this book was written in the early 1970s, it sounds so applicable for today. The Wounded Healer challenged me as a Christian leader to step into the pain-filled lives as others in a more authentic way. Nouwen argues that healers must first be personally acquainted with the same type of pain that other wounded people are experiencing.
Isaiah 53 says that Christ “was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.” Because Jesus was wounded in the same way we are wounded, He knows how to help (see Hebrews 2:18).
One closing quote from Nouwen: “If there is any posture that disturbs a suffering man or woman, it is aloofness. …No one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with his whole person into the painful situations, without taking the risk of become hurt, wounded or even destroyed in the process. The beginning and the end of Christian leadership is to give your life for others.”
This book reconfirmed my desire to — like Jesus — be a wounded healer for others.
I sliced my thumb open yesterday. Okay, maybe “sliced” is a little too dramatic. But I did cut my thumb, and it did bleed. True, it didn’t gush blood — more like oozed blood — but blood was escaping my body. It was a small cut; perhaps a ¼-inch long.
I pressed a tissue on it until is stopped bleeding. I washed my thumb thoroughly with antibacterial soap and water. I applied some Neosporin ointment. And I wrapped the injury in a fresh Band-aid.
All of this care and concern for a small cut on my thumb.
Do you realize how much one uses their thumb in the course of a day?
That small cut on the thumb on my non-dominant hand was affecting my entire day. One little cut and my entire body was adversely affected!
A friend called me the other day. His heart was ripped open. Okay, maybe “ripped” is a little too dramatic. But he was emotionally damaged. True, he didn’t need a trip the emergency room and he probably won’t have to start taking anti-depressants, but emotional “blood” was escaping his heart.
He called me, and I responded. One little wound in my friend’s heart and I was affected! Do you realize how much one’s emotions are involved in the course of a day?
Dr. Paul Brand was a renowned hand surgeon and missionary who worked with leprosy patients in India for years. He learned that leprosy doesn’t mangle a person’s foot or hand, but their lack of ability to feel pain does. They don’t feel the cut on their pinky toe or left thumb, and so they never attend to it. The injury becomes infected, and still no pain registers to tell them to take care of it. Eventually serious, irreversible damage is done.
Listen to what Dr. Brand wrote in his book In His Image —
“A body only possesses unity to the degree that it possess pain…. We must develop a lower threshold of pain by listening, truly listening, to those who suffer. The word compassion itself comes from Latin words cum and pati; together meaning ‘to suffer with.’ …The body protects poorly what it does not feel.”
“Management of pain requires a delicate balance between proper sensitivity, to determine its cause and mobilize a response, and enough inner strength to keep the pain from dominating the whole person. For the Body of Christ, the balance is every bit as delicate and as imperative.”
We must develop a lower threshold of pain by listening, truly listening. …The body protects poorly what it does not feel. Are you listening, truly listening to those who are hurting around you today? You are connected to them. If one person hurts, we all hurt.
Truly listen. If they are hurting, it does affect you… and me. Let’s find them, bandage them, apply ointment to their wounds, and protect them from further injury. Let’s feel their pain so we can protect them from further pain.
Even before reading The Hole In Our Gospel this thought has been haunting me — Am I doing all that I can to help the last and the least?
Jesus made it quite clear: after my brief life here is over, He’s going to say one of two things to me. Either I took care of the least and the last, or I didn’t. There’s no middle ground. The conversation either sounds like this…
“I was hungry and you fed Me,
I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave Me a room,
I was shivering and you gave Me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to Me,” Jesus will say.
“Master,” I will answer, “what are You talking about? When did I ever see You hungry and feed You, thirsty and give You a drink? And when did I ever see You sick or in prison and come to You?”
“Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was Me — you did it to Me.”
Or like this…
“I was hungry and you gave Me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave Me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave Me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited,” Jesus will say.
“Master,” I will answer, “what are You talking about? When did I ever see You hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?”
“Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was Me — you failed to do it to Me.” (My paraphrase of Matthew 25:31-46)
Mother Teresa said that in the faces of the poor whom she served she saw “Christ, in His most distressing disguise.” My prayer is that God will open my eyes. I need to see the poor, the marginalized, the hungry and the suffering through their disguises. That’s Jesus who is poor, ignored and suffering, and it’s up to me to do something about it.
“Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” — Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision
When I first heard the title of Richard Stearns’ book — The Hole In Our Gospel — a thought crept into my mind. When I read on the back cover the phrase “to walk with the poorest of the poor in our world,” I was convinced: I just knew this book was going to be a guilt trip.
I couldn’t have been more wrong!
“The idea behind The Hole In Our Gospel is quite simple. It’s basically the belief that being a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ, requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world,” write Stearns as he introduces his book.
Using his life as a personal example, and presenting a stark but realistic picture of the suffering humanity in the world today, Stearns challenged me to look outside my own paradigm. I’ve seen the infomercials about sponsoring a child, and I keep abreast of the latest calamities in the world, but Stearns presents these sobering facts in a way that made me want to do something. Stearns quoted his friend Gary Gulbranson, “It’s not what you believe that counts; it’s what you believe enough to do.”
The other thing I wrongly assumed from the cover of this book was that the problems facing us were so huge, that even if I got involved little would change. Instead, Stearns showed me practical ways to help.
Far from being a “downer” or a guilt-trip, I found this book to paint an exciting picture of what was possible if I would just get involved. I could begin to imagine a world in which humanity was better off because I was in it.
Don’t shy away from this book just because it’s written by the president of World Vision: you will not read a single “commercial” or appeal to donate to World Vision or sponsor a child. But you will be changed. You will be challenged. On the closing page Stearns asks a poignant question: “And when you close this book, what will you do now?”
I’m going to get involved.
At 10:30 this morning I picked up my cell phone to call Barney. I knew his daughter, Alysia, had gone in for a routine tonsillectomy early this morning and I wanted to check on her. Just as I was scrolling down to his number, my phone began to ring: it was Barney calling me.
“Hey, Barney, I was just getting ready to call you….”
“Pastor,” he interrupted, “we’re in trouble. Before they could do Alysia’s surgery, she stopped breathing and her heart stopped beating. It seems okay now, but my daughter almost died. They’re taking her to ICU right now. I don’t know what to do.”
I hurried over to Hurley Hospital and went right into the ICU. Alysia was doing better, but her blood pressure was still very low, and her heartbeat was racing. After spending some time talking with the nurses and praying with Alysia, I slipped out so her Mom, Maria, could stay with her, and I went back out to the waiting room to see Barney.
“Barney, I think she’s stablized now. It’s going to be okay. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Yes, Pastor, would you pray with these kids.” He motioned to four crying teenagers sitting together in the opposite corner of the waiting room. “Their friend, Christopher, just passed away. I’ve been talking to them, but I would really like you to pray with them.”
Pray with them?!? His daughter is laying in an ICU room, and he’s concerned about some teenagers — whom he has never met before — in the midst of their grief. Wow! I immediately thought of the Apostle Paul’s words, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4). Jim Collins writes about The Genius Of And, and Barney beautifully exhibited that. He was both concerned about Alysia and Christopher’s friends too. In my trials, how often do I become completely self-focused? Thanks, Barney, for a great example of Both-And compassion in action.
