the suppliants

So...you wanna be a short-term missionary?

Ok, that's cool. But first read this article:

Mission Tourism?

Then get back to me.

Buy Nothing Day!

Today is Buy Nothing Day...also known as Black Friday.   It's the largest shopping day of the year with millions of Americans scurrying to find good deals and special holiday offers.  Says my sister-in-law in her blog Pop Culture For Expatriates:

"I have a lot of opinions about this over-commercialized, over-sentimentalized holiday we call Christmas. Every year I get soooo fed up and determine to celebrate a simple day with my family. And, y'know, I've realized that what I'm ultimately doing with my kids is what all the advertisers and radio stations and store managers are trying to sell people. They've manufactured an essentially unobtainable Christmas. The only way to get anything remotely close is to refuse to buy into their garbage.

Anyway, for those of you outside the US, we're now entering the ultimate season of American consumerism, rudeness and falsehoods."

On this day I'm meditating on these scriptures:

"But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that."  (I Timothy 6:6-8)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  (Matthew 6:19-21)

The Mysterious Distance Between a Man and a Woman

A Man and a Woman:  A Study in Love

Little sister
Don't you worry about a thing today
Take the heat from the sun

And little sister
I know that everything is not ok
But you're like honey on my tongue

True love never can be rent
But only true love can keep beauty innocent

But I could never take a chance
Of losing love to find romance
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman

Delilah:  With doubtful feet and wavering resolution
I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson;
Which to have merited, without excuse,
I cannot but acknowledge.

Samson, not that I endeavor
To lessen or extenuate my offence...
...it was a weakness
In me, but incident to all our sex,
Curiosity, inquisitive, importune
Of secrets, then with like infirmity
To publish them.

And what if love, which thou interpret'st hate,
The jealousy of love, powerful of sway
In human hearts, nor less in mine towards thee,
Caused what I did?

Samson:  ...Weakness is thy excuse, and I believe it -
All wickedness is weakness; but that plea, therefore
With God or Man will gain thee no remission.
But love constrained thee!  Call it a furious rage
To satisfy thy lust.  Love seeks to have love...
In vain thou striv'st to cover shame with shame...

No I could never take a chance
'Cause I could never understand
The mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman

You can run from love
And if it's really love it will find you
Catch you by the heel

But you can't be numb for love
The only pain is to feel nothing at all
How can I hurt when I'm holding you?

And I could never take a chance
Of losing love to find romance
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman

And you're the one, there's no-one else
And it makes me want to lose myself
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman

Delilah:  I was a fool, too rash and quite mistaken
In what I thought would have succeeded best.
Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson...

Samson:  At distance I forgive thee; go with that.

Chorus:  She's gone - a manifest Serpent...

Samson:  So let her go.  God sent her to debase me,
And aggravate my folly, who committed
To such a viper his most sacred trust
Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.

Chorus:  Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
And offence returning, to regain
Love once possessed, nor can be easily
Repulsed, without much inward passion felt,
And secret sting of amorous remorse.

Little sister
I've been sleeping in the street again
Like a stray dog

And little sister
I've been trying to feel complete again
But you're gone and so is God

The soul needs beauty for a soul mate
When the soul wants, the soul waits

But I could never take a chance
Of losing love to find romance
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman

For love and faith and sex and fear
And all the things that keep us here
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman

You'll see
You'll see
How can I hurt when I'm holding you?

- U2 "A Man and a Woman" from How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
- Quotes in bold from "Samson Agonistes" by John Milton

 

Eyeless in Gaza

Last night I started reading the long poem "Samson Agonistes" by English poet John Milton. The title means "Samson the Agonist, or Struggler" (agonistes being the Greek word meaning wrestler, or struggler). Wikipedia's summary of the poem says:

"A retelling of the story of Samson in Judges 13-16, it bears many similarities to Milton's other works, especially Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Like these works, "Samson Agonistes" follows many conventions of the Greek Classics, specifically attention to verisimilitude, a chorus, a sympathetic hero, and a small cast of players. It also bears many correlations to Milton's life and gives the modern scholar insight into Milton's attitudes about his own life and religion.

"Samson Agonistes" is the conversation of a man forced to labor in pain while in captivity as the result of his own foolishness. The heavy labor and embarrassment of pushing a grain mill, a task often given to oxen or donkeys, add to the pain of the scars of savage beatings and blindness after the Philistines gouged out his eyes. "Blind among enemies, O worse than chains. (66)"

This physical pain is coupled with the mental anguish (that is the Greek definition of agony) brought on by knowledge that his current low estate is a direct result of a broken vow to God (his secret revelation of the source of his God-given strength) and subsequent betrayal by Delilah, the woman he loved."

Here are some great lines:

Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke.
Yet stay; let me not rashly call in doubt
Divine prediction. What if all foretold
Had been fulfilled but through mine own default?
Whom have I to complain of but myself...

O impotence of mind in body strong!
But what is strength without a double share
Of wisdom? Vast, unwieldy, burdensome,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall
By weakest subtleties...

Suffices that to me strength is my bane,
And proves the source of all my miseries -
So many, and so huge, that each apart
Would ask a life to wail.

You can read this poem online at an excellent annotated website maintained by Dartmouth University.

Our friend Ivan is serving in Iraq with a faith-based NGO working to rehabilitate the water system in an Iraqi city. We met Ivan when we hosted his team of 26 from Minnesota in July, 2004 and have since kept touch on and off. Today we were reading his blog and this post really struck us:

I think that complacency is one of the biggest problems that we face today. With everything becoming more convenient it’s becoming easier and easier to just sit and watch everything go by.

I have less than 3 weeks to go before I leave. It would be very easy for me just to drop everything and relax. I mean, it’s been a tough 5 months and I’ve had to deal with so much. Everyone would understand. I deserve the rest.

Well maybe, but these last 3 weeks are just as important as the first 3 weeks or any 3 weeks in between. If I were to slack off I might miss an important opportunity to help or share with someone. I might miss an chance to encourage a teammate or help make things better for them in the future.

And you know that God always helps to remind us.

On Tuesday morning, 3 bombs ripped through the city nearest to us. Over a dozen people died. Thankfully, the people in our office in that city were not injured. The cell phone systems were down for the next day since the phones are often used to trigger bombs.

This was different than the car bomb in June since that was perpetuated by and insurgent group. These bombings were done by Ansar Islam, a home-grown fundamentalist group, which means that the people doing these dastardly acts look just like everyone else here.

And they used to be headquartered here in my city, until the US military chased them out with bombs and guns, just a couple of years ago.

All the security is on super high alert and I’m sure everyone is wary of being too close to us because as Americans we are a high priority target. And as the only foreigners in the city, it makes us stick out like sore thumbs.

It’s hard to be complacent when something like that is on your mind. You want to make the most of your time, just in case. You don’t know how much time you have left or how much time the people you are friends with have.

The people who died in the bombings on Tuesday don’t have any time left.

I think it’s a good reminder to stay active and not complacent.

Now if I could only maintain that same vigilance in America where there are few if any terrorists in my backyard.

Did you know that God's killing off his theological enemies?

This is Paul Procter.  He publishes a column called "Biblically Speaking" on the newswithviews.com website and is a pretty outspoken conservative Christian and self-anointed culture warrior for Jesus.   Proctor serves as a good example NOT to follow when one feels like the culture is going to hell in a handbasket and the church is being pressed on every side by the kingdom of darkness. 
Proctor has stirred up things in the blogosphere this week with an article entitled, "God Sends Shocking Message to the Emerging Church" about the accidental death of Southern Baptist pastor Kyle Lake of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas who was electrocuted to death in front of his whole congregation on Sunday, October 30 while conducting a baptism.   In the blogosphere rants are quite common and you almost get used to them.  I can say that few rants really get my blood boiling but Mr. Proctor has achieved this feat.  I'm not going to go on a big rant here about Paul Proctor myself so you'll have to go to these links (they're far better than what I would say anyway!):

Tallskinnykiwi's comments

Boars Head Tavern

Internetmonk.com

And sadly enough, there are other hateful, spiteful so-called Christians out there who mirror and applaud Proctor's evil thoughts:
www.sliceoflaodicea.com

This is Jessica who's in my adult English class.  Today I noticed her staring intently at today's La Prensa.  I didn't really think anything of it until I noticed the girl on the cover of the Nosotras magazine insert looked amazingly like her.   I think she was waiting for the rest of the class to notice and soon enough, Victor, one of the guys in the class, said, "hey, is that you?"  She smiled and then the rest of the class crowded around to see her photos.  Ahhh, her first cover shot.  I remember that same feeling of pride and vanity of my first cover so many years ago...

But I kept that all to myself.

Jesus & Suburbia

The following is a rant...you are hereby forewarned...

"The Land Under Our Feet" is a big expensive outreach campaign by a big suburban church (which small remain unnamed) to "reach" their city (which shall also remain unnamed) with the gospel.  This program will be a huge success if the "unreached" people of this particular American location  want a pre-programmed, consumeristic, egocentric, self-help, be-all-you-can-be, live-the-American-dream kind of Christianity.  Maybe that's what some people want...who knows?  But there are others who will be completely repelled by this type of thing and will end up coming to the following conclusion:  "If this is Christianity, then I don't want it."

Sometimes God uses strange announcers.  He used Zoroastrian priests to bring gifts to the Christ child, He used an ass to rebuke Balaam, and , hey, He still uses asses for that matter...look at me.  But I digress.  So what about that statement..."if this is Christianity, then I don't want it."  I'm going to let Green Day answer that one:

JESUS OF SUBURBIA

I'm the son of rage and love
The Jesus of Suburbia
From the Bible of "None of the Above"
On a steady diet of soda pop and ritalin
No one ever dies for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell

This is how I'm supposed to be
In the land of make believe
That don't believe in me
Get my television fix
Sitting on my crucifix

Yeah, I don't want it either and the hell of it is that neither does Jesus.