Here are the slides for the presentation (click to enlarge).
PARTICIPATE IN THE CONVERSATION BY LEAVING A COMMENT BELOW.
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Here are some questions to spark your comments:
Do you have any relationships with people who are really struggling ... even suffering?
Have you ever been immersed in a culture that’s very different from your own?
Why should we care about people living half a world away?
Where do you tend to engage issues of suffering?:
Politically?
Relationally?
Philosophically?
Spiritually?
5 comments:
Here are the presentation notes that correspond to the slides:
Stories:
Nicole, a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) meets a family of WASPs(Worried African Suffering People).
Stacey (WASP) experiences severe medical need among WASPs in Togo.
9000 people dying daily in Africa of disease and poverty. Why care? Why do anything? You can’t change politics & economies!
Famous: Why attempt? Because of Famous WASPs?
Relationship: Why do some celebs really connect with this? Relationship. Do you know anyone whose struggling (who’se not in your demographic?)
Get Over: Narcissism is more common than we admit. There are a couple of keys to breaking out of dissatisfaction with life: reach out, reach up. (story of Bono & why he didn’t get involved earlier).
Opportunities abound - I’m not selling a particular program. It’s hard to avoid a chance to help!
My favorite cop-out is that I'm not young and single. If I were young and single, I could join Nicole in Africa and change the world. But I'm not. I'm a middle-aged housewife, and therefore I can do nothing. I'm too busy keeping my husband's sock drawer full. Yes, perhaps I do pass suffering people on the way to Safeway, but what can I do? My teenage son is in desperate need of pizza pops. This is what I tell myself when I'm confronted with pictures of Africa or downtown Calgary. But written out like this, my excuses don't sound very convincing. I'm not sure what a middle-aged housewife can do about Aids or world poverty...but maybe the Mustard Seed could use a box of pizza pops. (My son informs me he'll only eat wraps now.)
I have two good excuses. I'm generally too tired to engage, and suffering people make me uncomfortable. I don't know how they'll respond.
That's the honest truth and yet when you say it out loud like that, it shows it up for the weak, self-centered reality it is.
Philosophically I believe that when we reach out beyond ourselves is when we find the source of our strength and passion. God can flow through us. I don't think He's interested in flowing into us without flowing out again. Sometime it's when we are personally most needy that we most need to reach out beyond ourselves. That's where we get restored.
I believe it, now I just need to do it. Why's it so hard?
Stacey
Well said, Stacey! I'm reminded of my least favorite verse, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:24) Who in their right mind wants to lose their life? No one I know, not even Jesus. ("Take this cup from me!") And yet, whenever we dedide to go through with it, resurrection waits on the other side. (Man, I should write this stuff down! Oh, I did.)
Ok, so maybe I'm not ready for Gethsemane, but maybe it's ok to start with baby steps. Today I'll let my husband have the remote control. Tomorrow I'll smuggle bibles.
great stuff
I wish all churches got the message you seem to have discovered
instead of making 'real love wait',
why not insist on making love 'real' immediately?
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