Our violence sick hearts

World events make it really hard for a guy like me to write anything funny these days.  I confess that I've spent far too much time reading articles on terrorism in these last few weeks--and not just the hype that surrounds events but actual analysis about these groups--neither because of paranoia nor morbid curiosity but rather from a sense of responsibility.  As a team leader, I feel a weight of making decisions about security for my teammates and for potential visitors. 

I also use social media, and you can't help noticing the debates raging right now.  The rhetoric surrounding Muslims, refugees, and guns right now is dizzying.  I have friends and family on all sides of the issues, and I confess that I have my own positions.  Yet, I can't help wonder if in our debates we are getting it wrong.  Let me speak specifically to Evangelicals here (though you are welcome to read along if you don't find yourself of that persuasion) and suggest a different way.

To do this, let me borrow two very politicized statements that  I see popping up on Facebook all the time right now.  I'll take one from each side of the debate, in the hopes of being an equal opportunity offender.  But hang in there with me! Stick this out to the end and see where it takes us.

The Right seems to be saying, "This isn't a gun problem; it is a violence problem."  You know, I actually think this is right on.  It is actually more right than we realize.  We tend to think of violence as the problem of the "other", of the "bad guy" who just committed the latest atrocity.  However, any honest analysis of our society would recognize that we are sick with violence.  Look at the way we communicate, the way we debate on TV, and the way we use every new shocking event to trump our views on social media, instead of taking the much wiser moment of silence.

The problem for us Evangelicals is that we've fallen ill with this communicable disease.  We've let this violence walk right into our hearts.  This might not ring true if we hold to definitions of physical or verbal violence (though social media tells another story), but we Evangelicals are so fond of looking at the heart attitude behind sin, so let's do just that.  Isn't the heart attitude of violence the desire to get my own way, by my own means, without any yielding to others?

When it comes to security, Evangelicals on both sides of the gun debate are, I'd humbly suggest, getting it wrong.  And those most adamant, on either side, are getting it most wrong. Those arguing for gun rights are creating their own security with their own force and that of their firearm.  On the other hand, those arguing for gun control and disarmament are hoping to create their own security by political solutions that are forced on everyone.  Depending on what data you read and what rhetoric you listen to, you might find one of those positions more appealing than the other, but at their heart they are the same.  They are all about creating our own security, by our own preferred method.

Faith calls us to something else entirely.  Faith calls us to a security not of our own making but a security of resting in the power and sovereignty  of God, whatever might come.  We see this modeled well for us in that classic story of David and Goliath.  David went against a formidable opponent.  Some would argue that he was completely outmatched; others would say that he had an unwitting advantage (in that archery has typically been very effective against infantry).  Either way, David didn't go into the battle with a confidence in his weapon or his own ability to bring about a good result.  He went into battle resting in the fact that the Lord would accomplish His purposes.

In our day, I know people working in very dangerous areas that have different convictions on guns.  I know a pastor who works in a dangerous area in the States where locals advised him to carry, and so he does.  I know a security specialist who travels to the most dangerous places in the world to give advice to Christian ministries, and he often goes armed.  Neither of them, however, go to these places because they're armed.  They go in faith because God has called them.  Equally, there are Christians living, voluntarily, in dangerous areas all over the world without an arm.  They aren't there because they naively believe that being unarmed will keep them safer or because they think that the sources of danger will suddenly disappear.  A conviction of God's call, and therefore, His provision are what take them and keep them there.

As I was working on a security plan for our team last week, I was really struggling with the fact that nothing I wrote was going to be fail-proof.  I had to come to place where I realized that while there was wisdom in what I was doing, none of my coworkers are here because they believe there is such a thing as an airtight security plan.  They don't naively believe they can out-gun any assailants, and they don't naively think that these armed groups are going to disappear.  Their call and hope come from the Lord, not from a security of their own making.

When our violence contaminated hearts speak to us about security, they always speak words of chilling fear.  As we react to that fear, we are tempted to use that very violence to carve out our own security.  Faith is the only antidote to such poison.  As we place ourselves entirely into the care of our Shepherd, we are liberated from trying to achieve our way, by our means.  We, as Evangelicals, need to stop being distracted by the false dichotomy presented in the gun debate, because it takes our attention off the real problem.  Instead, we need to deal radically with the violence in our own hearts.

The Left, on the other hand, is saying, "Enough already! It is time for action!"  Quite frankly, who can disagree at least with the sentiment?  Something desperately needs to be done.  I am not, however, convinced that the political process is going to accomplish anything any time soon.  (When it comes to American politics on any issue, I'm rather skeptical, to be honest.)  I'm more interested in what a response of faith would push us to do.  If we place ourselves entirely in the care of the Lord, in other words, where would He have us be?

I won't repeat my arguments from my earlier post, but suffice it to say, living by faith has never resulted in living in my own secure fortress.  In the lives of those who have been marked as heroes of faith, we see that it always takes them into desperate places, places of enormous need and hurt.  Likewise, we will need to allow our faith to take us to the places in our world where the wound is the deepest.

The Apostle Peter grew up in a culture dominated by violence.  His own people believed that the only way forward, out of their suffering, fear, and misery, was going to be a violent revolt by the Messiah.  So when Peter becomes the right-hand man to Jesus, he is ready to put violence into action.  Jesus continually shuts down this reaction in Peter.  The night Jesus is arrested, He rebukes Peter for using the sword, saying, "Those who live by the sword die by the sword."  This had to be terribly confusing to Peter, and it was only the beginning, as the crucifixion turned his world upside down.  However, after encountering the resurrected Christ, Peter is transformed.  Jesus even tells Peter that the end of his life won't be pleasant, but this doesn't slow Peter down.  Living out of a total confidence in Christ, he goes out into the needy world, and this time it is the world that is turned upside down.

We, as Evangelicals, need to model this type of living.  In the face of our violence sick communities, our violence sick hearts, we need to live in faith.  What could this look like?

What if after the next atrocity, Evangelicals were strangely silent on social media, either saying nothing at all, or simply some version of "Condolences and Prayers"?  Let people misinterpret that how they will.  Let the NRA and the Left duke it out over guns.  What if we simply mourned the violence around and in us?

What if the next Sunday in church, after a time of repenting of violence, of our desire to achieve our own ends, by our own means, there was a public recruitment?  What if we had a list of volunteers that were going to go mentor kids in the worst school in town?  What if another list contained the names of those who were committing to move into the worst neighborhoods (some taking along their pistol, others taking nothing)?  What if another was a list of recruits for moving to dangerous countries? What if families signed up to take in foster children and adopt orphans? 

In a word, what if our faith-healed hearts pushed us beyond our false, self-created safety into a world of hurt and need?  Then, I think, we could actually say that we are tackling our violence problem.

Prayer Requests

1.  Our hospital received a large grant from USAID for a solar project that would supply all the hospital's energy needs.  However, after having already made some purchases, USAID is saying that we cannot purchase things from Holland (which is where our technician lives and is purchasing items).  We've filed for an exception.  Monday we will hear whether or not we will receive this waiver.  Please pray that it would come through favorably.

2.  This coming week, I will be headed to a meeting to discuss church planting in the border zone between here and the neighboring country.  Pray that the Lord would lead those meetings and give us wisdom as we plan.  Pray for safe travel.

3.  Pray for the security situation here.  Soon we'll need to make a decision about a couple visiting teams that are supposed to come in the next couple months.  Pray that we'd have wisdom to know whether to have them come or to cancel them.

4.  It is a busy season.  Pray that my coworkers and I will be able to get our work done, but also to have moments to rest in the presence of the Lord and to worship Him in special ways in this Advent season.