It's been too long

What can I rejoice to God about?

How about a humble overseas worker--check this out from my friend "TJ" whom I trained under this past summer in SE Asia (and please pray for him, too):

The Competitor

I was born into this earth already a winner. I was one of 270 million people that called themselves American. The majority of the 6 billion residents of this planet scrape by from day to day. I was privileged to move into a new home as a child and was never denied any of my needs. No, I wasn’t born into the richest family on earth, but I can say in retrospect that I had things very good.

Was this enough for me? No. I began to judge myself by those around me. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I could work the system, in my head, to make me superior to virtually anyone. They may be smarter than me, but I was a better athlete than them. Maybe they were a better athlete, but I was smarter than them. When did I start to learn this system? I don’t know…I do remember that only half the class in kindergarten learned to read, and I was one of those who learned to read, a fact that my friend reminds me of still. But I really think this idea was embedded in my psyche in high school when it came time to vote for “class favorites” and “most likely to succeed”. That was when this economy became a part of me. It was vital to be talented, to value people based on who they were, and what they could do and above all to try to be better than they were at something.

Somewhere along the road, I became a Christian. No problem, because this economy dovetails nicely with much of contemporary Christian thinking. Therefore, since I could quote all the books of the Bible, the 23rd Psalm and lots of other verses from memory it merely fit nicely into this idea that I was somehow better than most everyone. Little did I understand that this belief was quite extra-Biblical. Would I have ever confessed to holding to this economy of value? No, not in a million years, but it secretly drove almost everything that I did.

Fast forward to today. I still have a tendency to operate under this same skewed belief. I love the local food, while others don’t, therefore I must be better. I always measure my command of the local language by my co-labourers. If it is better than theirs, I must be better than them. If it isn’t better, I am better in a different area, maybe local slang or pronunciation or vocabulary.

This last month I have really been struggling with this economy, not because I wanted to, but because God was really putting his finger on this area of my life. I was quite happy to keep living exactly the way I had my whole life.

Galatians was a book written to a group of people who had come to faith in Jesus Christ. They had walked faithfully as long as Paul was around to guide them in their faith. But, after Paul left them, they began to combine their new faith with the legalism they had known under Judaism. This is observed in Galatians 4:9 & 10: “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years.”

As I read and reread these verses and chapters, a solemn truth began to dawn in my soul. Galatians was written for ME. I had become a Christian early in my life, but I was just as guilty as the Galatians. I had returned to the way of life I knew, to the way of life I was comfortable with. This was to measure myself and others around me by their abilities or wealth or adherence to Christian disciplines.

The moment I was crucified with Christ, I was redeemed out of this value economy and into a different one. This economy is one of grace. God’s grace. Why am I important? Because God loves me! Am I more important than anyone? No, because God loves the world!! (cf. John 3:16) But I had for so long been operating in the old economy, and in turn missing the joy that comes from the new. Instead of being encouraged by my brother or sister’s faith, I was threatened by it, and missed the joy of loving them and rejoicing with them.

If you doubt the reality of this economy of grace, consider Galatians 3:27 &28:
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed
yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; you
are all one in Christ.

Then I continued on in my quiet times, reading into Ephesians. For some reason the Holy Spirit started to show me that at no time in Galatians or Ephesians does Paul tell the believers to preach to the pagans. The closest he comes to that is when he tells them to hold forth the Word of life. Paul is much more concerned that they understand who they are in Christ and how that breaks into their lives. Twice in Ephesians Paul writes extended prayers detailing how he wants their eyes to be opened to certain truths of Christ. (Ephesians 1:18-23 and 3:14-21) It seems that Paul was much more concerned about their identity in Christ and their identification with Christ than how many tracts they handed out.

Then I read in Philippians 2:1 &2:
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
And Philippians 1:27:
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. (Emphasis mine)

My whole life I have been working in a value economy which rated myself and others on certain “value points”. It was not a Biblical idea, but something that entered humankind with the Fall. Cain killed Abel, because he too was a competitor like me and he wanted to get rid of the competition. When I took this value economy into my newfound faith, I was able to get it to ‘work’ but never realized the cost. In this economy, my outward actions counted ten times more than my inward walk. So, my inward communion and character were secondary to the things I did in front of others. And I secretly measured myself by them and their outward actions, never fully grasping or comprehending that we were all valuable because Christ chose to love us. (Sure, I could tell you Christ loved us equally in theory.) How does one develop community when one is secretly competing with all the other members? Very poorly.

Paul, on the other hand, said we should not continue to work in this value economy, but should realize we are equal in Christ. Wesley put it this way: “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” Paul wanted Christians to not compare themselves with one another, but rather pursue Christ because he is the only thing worth pursuing. Secondly, Paul placed equal weight on the internal and external marks of the faith. Thirdly, Paul placed great stress on community, a community that could be built because its members were not fighting one another but were pursuing Christ in unison.

Francis Schaeffer remarks: “When we talk of the Christian life or true spirituality, when we talk about freedom from the bonds of sin, we must be wrestling with the inward problem of not coveting against God and men, of loving God and men, and not merely some set of externals.” (True Spirituality)

My escape from this value economy and into the economy of grace is LOVE. Perhaps this was in the mind of Paul when he wrote I Corinthians 13, the “love chapter”. Or perhaps it was on the heart of John the Evangelist when he penned I John, the “love book”. Actually, it can be traced back a bit further, to Christ himself.
Matthew 22:36-39:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment of the Law? And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”

I find it more than serendipity that I am having this revealed in me at the very time two new team members are arriving here. If I see them as a project, a set of goals to put in place or problems to be solved, I would be useless to them as a leader. And I could miss the true blessing it is to love someone and pursue Christ in community with them.

This also helps me understand why the world works the way it does. All of those outside the family of faith will naturally work in the value economy, so of course they will cut me off in traffic or complain about the way I do something. They are only doing what comes natural to them, and I have been redeemed from that economy.

2 Corinthians 5:16 & 17:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.
Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come!

Wednesday-New Workers: By September 13th all the new interns will have arrived. Pray for them as they settle into this country and look for housing, eat new foods, and learn a new language. Pray for me as I interact with D and J, that my love for them will be evident to all, but especially them.