Last month I spent a day in New York City. As the
return train to Summit left Pen Station, I spotted a former neighbor walking up
the aisle, and I motioned to him to join me. My friend Tom and I had
first met years before in a Bible study class.
After a little catching up about our respective families, I
remembered that Tom has been an engineer employed by a prominent internet
communications company. Predictably, we were soon asking each other how
our work was going. I proudly admitted that I had retired a few years
earlier, But I was keeping quite busy. Tom said he was now doing much of
his work in foreign countries, and that he had recently returned from
Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. I remembered that a huge earthquake had
devastated that country recently. Tom said that it had killed nearly
9,000 people and had badly damaged the infra-structure of the country.
"It didn't help," Tom said, "that the country
is in the middle of the Himalaya Mountains, quite remotely placed between India
and China." Tom had seen widespread ruin across the country, and
many dead people along the road sides, and bodies being collected from
collapsed buildings and houses.
"And it made me realize," Tom continued,
"that we are so lucky. We are so lucky to be living here and
not there." He had some tears in his eyes when he said that.
He admitted he was sort of overwhelmed with gratitude.
I listened quietly, and then said, "You have so much gratitude,
but then what?"
"We're just so lucky that we live here instead of
there." Tom said.
"Really? That's it?" I said to Tom.
I paused and then asked a question: "When you witness
suffering, but then declare yourself to have apparently achieved salvation in
the "religion of gratitude" because you have had good luck, do
you think maybe you have fallen short of what God would have you do?"
I paused to think about my next words. "While I
think God does want us to feel gratitude," I said, "I do not think
God particularly wants us to feel 'lucky'. I think God wants us to
witness the pain and suffering of others, and rather than just feeling 'lucky'
because the adversity missed us ---- God wants us to rise up and do something
about it. Doesn't God want us to help address this pain and suffering
with a helping hand?
I continued: "Feeling 'lucky' is like saying
that the gods pick one person to live in the suburbs of the richest nation on
earth, and another person to starve. In a worldview limited to 'luck',
any righteous behavior by us is just not relevant. 'Luck' suggests that
we are powerless and unable to change anyone else's "bad luck".
Furthermore, at some point the worldview of 'luck' just doesn't pan out.
At some point one realizes that this religion of 'luck' isn't enough, and we
really long for newly focused hearts ---- for something as extreme as a new
heaven and a new earth for humankind."
"I think I hear what you are saying," Tom
responded. "What is missing from the religion of 'luck' worldview is
the perspective that we get in a Christian community, that would take us from
thinking ourselves merely 'lucky', to actually doing something about the
hardships of other peoples' lives. At some point, if one thinks
about it at all, the person with the self-made religion of 'luck', can use his
God-given brain and the wisdom of hard experience, and start to ask angry and
provocative questions, to begin seeing holes in the spirituality of the status
quo..
We were now approaching Summit Station, so I needed to say
something that would wrap up our discussion. "The civil rights
movement didn't happen because people felt 'lucky'. The hungry don't get
fed, the homeless don't get sheltered, and the world doesn't change just
because people who are doing okay feel 'lucky'. We need more. As
Christians we expect more, way more, like a new heaven and a new earth, and
because we follow Jesus, we had better expect to be involved in making it
happen, side-by-side with other people.
_______________________________________________________________________________
These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal
growth this summer at CPC.
_______________________________________________________________________________
A New Challenge For You
! Introducing Commentary Dialogue:
Here is an attempt at conversation with our
audience. Based on this week's story, here are two questions for
you. We have over 200 readers, and they have opinions worth
hearing. If anyone responds to me on any of the following questions, your
comment will be printed next week, with an invitation to our other readers to
comment further. Importantly, to encourage participation, I will not
identify the author of any comments submitted, although I reserve the right to
identify myself if I comment.
Question #1:
In a huge and distant disaster like the earthquake in
Nepal, does any humanitarian relief effort by CPC members or church-wide at
CPC, make sense? Would we we better advised to direct our efforts and
money to some need closer to home, where we can better ensure productive
results?
Question #2:
Perhaps "good luck" plays some role in the
lives of each of us ('luck": by chance, being in the right or wrong place,
at the "right" time)? How much should we at CPC try to
increase the chances of "good luck" in the lives of the poor and
homeless who may think "good luck" has forgotten them? At what
point would we become intrusive in their lives?
I hope to hear from you.
______________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment