In yesterday’s post, Impending Doom, I shared about a segment of our society whose entire life narrative is built around the hope they find in a world headed to hell in a hand basket, praying for and even seeking to manipulate world events to usher in the imminent return of Jesus.
Last month, I drove from Nashville, Tennessee to Starkville, Mississippi for a Sunday afternoon speaking engagement. As I drove across rural Alabama and Mississippi, through small towns, flooded fields, and by countless small farms, I got a glimpse into a religious phenomenon oddly familiar.
On this drive were hundreds of religious signs. Most mentioned the name of a church or the times of a service. But many focused on a central message: Impending Doom.
A big term in college basketball this year was, “Are you the hunter or are you the hunted?” In other words: Are you the aggressor?
The cool moist Pacific air greeted me. I sent a text to Kristen, who was waiting in the cell phone lot. “I’m outside.” Three minutes prior I walked off my Southwest flight from Chicago, the last leg of my return flight from Port au Prince. A few minutes later and I saw her pull up in our white minivan. She slid over to the passenger seat, I tossed my bags into the back, and the trip was officially over.
Watch the first 6-7 minutes of this presentation from Rick Steves, I think it’ll challenge your perceptions of what it means…
In both cases, I hope to see more of that. I know for myself, while I certainly don’t land in the same area code as Mr. Steves on a lot of political issues addressed in this speech… I certainly want to continue to embody the two points above. I want to and plan to continue to travel beyond our borders. And I want to and plan to continue to share what I know to be true.
I’ll be sharing some stories and reflections on the 2014 Haiti Vision Trip with Praying Pelican Missions over the next week or so. But for now I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures. (Hover over the images to see captions, RSS readers, visit the site to see missing captions)
In the morning I leave for a less-than-routine trip to Haiti.
I say “less-than-routine” because while it’s easy for me to get comfortable traveling to Haiti, it’s just one of those places I don’t want to ever get routine.
Last week, a fellow volunteer in our high school ministry asked me for some advice about a student in her small group who is being bullied online. Specifically, the attacks are coming from anonymous accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Ask.fm. My friend told me that the student had already talked to the school counselor about it, but the attacks hadn’t stopped and were now affecting her school work, sleep, etc.
I wanted to share the advice I gave as a starting point for other youth workers, educators, parents, and individuals faced with the same issue. (Obviously, I’ve edited this a little bit to make it general.)
Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
This was part of Paul’s stump speech, a common theme captured in Paul’s letters to various churches. He spoke a version of Robin-Hood-esque democracy into a religious world that was autocratic by definition.