Kristus Aman Youth Ministry.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Realizations of the Self-Obsessed

Blog Entry



A lot of us get disillusioned with the Church because it fails to give what we desire. We feel that if something isn't meeting our need or measuring up to our concept of what the Church should be, then it's fine to jump ship or taper off our commitment. I'll be the first to admit this mentality. Having grown up steeped in "Christian World", at some point I wanted out. Christian living, community life and rule-abiding weren't holding up to their end of the bargain, that if I mentally agreed to particular tenets about God, He'd give me everything I wanted. I was dying spiritually.

But I came alive when I offered myself in service. When I stopped focusing on what I could get out of the deal and focused on what I could give unconditionally. The problem wasn't that I wasn't getting anything out of the Church; it was that I wasn't giving of myself to the world through the Church. It turns out that receiving isn't what makes you live; it's giving.

Once, I was listening to a radio interview with Joel Houston from Hillsong United. He made a point that people get into the Church because they get something out of it. But we should be focused on what we can offer in service. Today, I was reading an article by Shane Claiborne, proponent of new monasticism and founder of The Simple Way. He said, "God didn’t create a world of scarcity. But we’ve created poverty and need by not living out this command to love our neighbor as ourself."

One key point I want to make is that we recognize the world is in need, but we are still more obsessed with receiving than giving. It doesn't make sense, because we have so much to give.

Last night at Elim Singles, Barbie made a beautiful point that the world is at its best when people give; it is at its worst when people don't. That statement reaches deep -- into poverty, economics, justice and the most simple of human relationships. And it's not just about giving money. If we really cared about the world's need -- the need for God, for justice, for peace -- we would quit whining about problems and just get out there and offer ourselves in service. It's not complicated.

Firebrand preacher Jentezen Franklin once said that the Gospel is simple: find the hurt and heal it. Furthermore, Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement said, “The best thing to do with the best things of life is to give them away.”

I know these are largely random points on the idea of giving, and not a well-made argument or anything. But let's quit making alibis. Stop focusing on our needs. We probably have all we need. And if not, the pursuit of God assures that our needs will be met. But let's get that point straight: the pursuit of God and His will is manifest in how we serve others, in how we give of ourselves.

So, as young Christians with so much to give, let's look at the world and see what we can give, thinking less on what we can get out of things.

Everybody Checks Themself Out



Life Was Simpler With Film
So the photographer snaps the group shot, and the people who just had their impromptu -- but nevertheless, highly-posed -- photo taken move out of their frozen positions. "Lemme see!" say an eager few. This is when people check themselves out, crowding around the little digital monitor of the camera as if it were a panoramic widescreen. Of course, there are those who couldn't care less how they looked in photos. And then there are those who pretend they couldn't care less. These people are my favorites because I think this is where I fit in, at least some of the time. As the eager self-checkers crowd around the camera, the closet self-checkers feign disinterest. They shift their eyes to and from the camera congregation, orbiting the vicinity at a comfortable enough distance within eye-shot, to ensure that they indeed looked good in the photo.

When someone thinks the photo taken is sub-par, they comment that another shot is in order, and the group must converge again for a re-shoot. Of course, this doesn't mean that the shot taken was bad at all. It simply means that the commenter deemed themself unattractive in said shot. Thus, the criteria for whether or not a photo taken is a good one is whether or not I looked good. It could be the most beautiful photo on earth, but if I thought I looked ugly in it, I'd want to do it again.

Parable Explained
I think this makes a fitting parable for the way we can be about the world. Our criteria for a good world is if we've got it all together. No matter how bad the world has it, we tend to focus on our own comfort and make that the priority. And on the flipside, when our world is going down the toilet, no matter how beautiful the rest of the world is, all is hell to us if our world isn't the way we want it to be - forget that God is good!

This is because the world's culture tends to over-emphasize my own well-being above all. The focus of most of my energy is making sure my academics, my career, my future, my plans, my luxuries, and so on, happen according to my idea of what a good life should be. If I look and feel fine in the picture, that's good enough for me. Regardless of what the rest of it looks like. Regardless of the big picture.

Celebrate and Clean Up The Beautiful Mess
But the truth is, at the times we get wrapped up in our exclusive pursuit of happiness, we need to remember that there is a world in need of what we have to offer: spiritually, physically, intellectually, materially. There is more than just our corner of the big picture, and we cannot overlook the responsibility. And then at other times, we get so wrapped up in our own little crises and failings and fail to see the world as anything more than bleak, dark and cold. It is at these times that we fail to see the beauty that must be celebrated.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that on this side of eternity, the world is a beautiful mess, filled with good and bad, existing in one place called the world. It's our job to open our eyes to the bigger picture, attempt to get a glimpse from the Creator's perspective. Then, we might acquire what it takes to celebrate the beauty and clean up the mess.

Practical stuff to consider: 1) Start doing more stuff for others: acts of kindness, zealous service in your community, give more to the poor, etc -- anything that will get your vision off yourself. Chances are you give yourself enough attention. 2) When life is bleak, remember that God is still good and there is always something to celebrate somewhere in the big picture.