So last week, I started leading a Bible study at church on The Seven Experiment, by Jen Hatmaker. This book wrecked my world like nothing I have ever read or done. I read it the first time this past fall and when I finished, I could not find my footing in a world I thought I knew; in a faith I thought I knew.
I grew up in a generous home. My parents gave to the church, they gave when people needed it, and they gave to us. In the midst of their giving, they also were good stewards of what they had and they budgeted responsibly. They were great examples to us. I have always had a love/hate relationship with money. I don't personally like it very much at all. I don't like thinking about it, planning around it, counting it, or dealing with it in any way. However, I do love what you can do and get with it. I have always considered myself a generous person. I have no problem giving money or spending money on others. In fact, I actually love to do it.
However....
Seven alerted me to some little details about myself that did not make me proud. I may have been generous and happy to give my money to people and causes, but I sure wasn't very aware of my own town and needs that exist here. I realized that I had no clue if we had a homeless population in Cleveland (we do) or what ministries were already doing work on the front line. I hadn't considered that the stuff I had (and the stuff I wasted) could actually be harmful to others. I was ignorant to so many pieces of the social justice puzzle. And I was the one who was supposedly leading young minds down that path in an entire semester long class!
So last October (I think), I went and met with a trusted mentor for a sounding board. I didn't expect him to "fix me" at all because, honestly, I didn't know what needed to be "fixed". I just needed someone to listen. And maybe point me in some direction. Several things came out of that meeting, not the least of which was a couple more meetings with leaders from different local agencies and humanitarian groups. From those meetings have come some specific actions and even an upcoming mission trip. I started to think I might have a chance at "fixing"me.
At the end of that month, I took my Holocaust Lit class to a conference that focused on a little village in France, Le Chambon. This deeply religious Protestant village of 500 Christians sheltered 500 Jews during the Holocaust. This conference, mind you, was not a religious conference. The focus was simply on choosing to be the rescuer. However, I left reminded that the Holocaust occurred in the heart of Christian Europe. It would not have been possible without the apathy of Christians. Why, then, if the world cared so little, did a few in this village care so much? The point was made by the survivors that any community anywhere has the choice to make and can choose right. People who seem very ordinary can do something extraordinary.
Christmas is a natural time to focus on others, in my opinion. It's easy, when the lights twinkle in the tree and everyone's singing about Little Baby Jesus, to give out of your abundance. But heaven knows (and in this case, Heaven did know) January is the time when the rubber meets the road. So this year, our church planned a reading initiative of the Bible. We read the entire Bible, aloud, from start to finish. Church members signed up for times to go to the church and read aloud. I signed up for a time later on, in the hope that it would be New Testament because I wanted Emma and Kelsey to read some and I knew the New Testament would be easier than Old. (I didn't think at the time to pray that we did NOT somehow hit during Song of Solomon, but thank goodness we didn't.) Wanna guess what part we read? Yep. Matthew 25:35-40 was part of it.
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?" The King will answer and say to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to the one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me."
Then came March, and I went to the Director's Training for Royal Family. Again, I was challenged by various speakers and presenters that it HAS to be us. The church is the one who has to rewrite the story. I listened to the head of Colorado DCS as she urged churches to lead in answering the call to foster and adopt. The church is not and cannot be in opposition to government and they can't come to us; we have to go to the government and work alongside them, recruiting for them.
Then came the idea to lead this Seven study in late April. And tonight, as I prepared for my lesson next Wednesday, what did I see but ... yep. Matthew 25:35-40. I'm not sure those verses really give us much wiggle room. You don't get to offer up our myriad of excuses as to why we didn't do the things we were specifically called to do.
I'm not sure what form this is going to take, for me or the members of our Bible study. But I know that I am anxious for the journey.
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