So I went to the Passion Conference this weekend at the Nokia Theatre and it changed my life. I don't know what that means for how I live but I know that God wants something completely radical for me. I am struggling with how I live a transformed life here and now. I don't want to wait until I finish school, or until some other time when I have free time. I want to start living a different life right here and right now.
Francis Chan spoke on Saturday night and totally floored me. He challenged us to do something about the injustice in our world. How can I sit here and watch TV, play on my laptop and explore new ways to invest my money while there are millions of children starving to death, young girls being sold and forced into sexual slavery, whole villages unable to get clean drinking water and people dying everyday without knowing our Savior? I don't think I can do it anymore. I can't do this normal suburban life that society expects from me and I so desperately want. The words that kept coming to my mind throughout the whole talk, and the ensuing response time, were "Lord, teach me to live against my nature and against my culture". Contra meum ingenium, contra meum populum (I'm a big fan of Latin just fyi -and its hard to get our understanding of the concept of culture and society out of Latin). I want to live the life that He has for me and not hold on to what I want. At Passion we sang a song that powerfully conveyed the message of God's love for all of this messed up world.
This song was written by a band who set up worship in a brothel in Pattaya, Thailand and Passion has used it as their mission and new album title for the upcoming world tour.
You're the God of this city
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are
You're the light in this darkness
You're the hope to the hopeless
You're the peace to the restless
You are
There is no one like our God
There is no one like you God
Greater things have yet to come and
Greater things have still to be done in this city
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7 comments:
Francis always blows it out of the water!!! He is the man!!!!!!!!!!
Francis is a Calvinist! Woo-hoo! Haha. Yeah good post. What do we do? We live in such a screwed up place...
Jake,
A very moving and challenging post.
Do you know if this song is on one of their CDs? The words are incredible!
Yvette
Yvette, the words are really incredibly. The song is going to be on the new CD with that title. It comes out on Feb. 5. Also, the song is on itunes by Bluetree - but on the CD it is sung by Tomlin. It's really moving.
And SB, glad to hear you like Chan and that he suits your theological leanings. All I know is that he is a powerful and challenging speaker (and doesn't preach too much doctrine as far as I know since I've listened to a good many talks and never heard a TULIP come out of his mouth - or maybe he teaches a different kind of doctrine).
awesome post. so different than all of your others. very real yet at the same time just as thought-provoking as ever. you are a such a gifted writer!!!
Hey Jake,
When I read this post I was reminded of what happened before David met Goliath. David's world around him was in turmoil with his community at a standoff with the Philistines. Yet, he remained faithful to his family duty of herding sheep. He did not neglect his duties where he was needed and he remained faithful to what at hand. But God eventually put him in a place where he could do something and he did.
I guess a moral is to stay patient. Humble yourself and remember, all things that come out of man are bad. And it's God that makes them work for Good. I guess one could ask, well how can I act as a conduit for God, how can I be a vessel to do God's work, Can I do whatever I want?, or whatever. But really, God'll make these things fall into place.
I like stories so I'm going to share one with you. It involves M. Cantrell and A. Moslemi. I prayed they would “come to God”. So one night I was arguing/ debating with MC over various topics and we came on the topic of free will. I tried to assert all the things that made sense to me about my belief. I made examples, counter examples to his examples, all sorts of things short of yelling. As I drove him back I was attacking him, I asked "why (do you think the way you do)?" His response in body and words made me realize something was wrong in the way I approached this situation. I went into this discussion gung-ho on trying to convince him, but I was fortunate to see that I hurt him. I can see I put himSo, I tried another method—Let God do the work.
Now, I regularly hang out with AM, and like MC, I prayed he’d come to God. And you know AM can be rather feisty about things, so by opportunity I took the new approach. I asked God to do it, so he let me try to stay patient, withhold judgment, remain faithful, whatever. Here’s the cool part. He’s gone from saying, “There’s no God.” To “If there’s a God” to writing about “God” to saying “I’m not God,” “I am not alive,” “The secret to life is to lose your securities” (Reminds me of Luke 8-9, which I love). And really, I did nothing exceptional in the eyes of the world!
To those who have eyes and ears: What I said, may or may not ring true for all time, But I hope it's enough to help you right now.
"Clean the inside of the cup and the outside will be clean too.”
Somehow I found myself here at a post you wrote over a year ago.
To me, your question is very broad in scope. Philosophically/Theoretically, it's just too broad to give a satisfactory answer in limited human words (quite frankly because I could go on forever).
But the short answer is: it's a process. You and I are part of it. It happens slowly. God's given us the tools. Start with yourself, extend to your group, then give love to others and one by one change happens. Jesus didn't leave the Samaritan woman because He knew she was one.
I know this can sound very cliche. But Good has always been there and always been around. It's the original cliche. It's not wrong to be unoriginal in ideology because in the end each path has its own uniqueness.
Ask and you'll receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.
Let us build a standard the wise and honest can repair. -George Washington
We'll have a real catch up time soon. Jake, I love you. I know you're doing fine.
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