Lost in Faith

An historic election?  I sit with tears flowing as I watched Barack Hussein Obama’s speech on election night.

I remember the day my parents* walked out of a restaurant in the deep south after seeing a sign that said, “All money spent by Niggers will be given to the KKK.”  Deep within me a sense of justice was birthed, the kind of justice Micah spoke of when he said God wants only three things, “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly before God.”

It is ashamed that the color of a man’s skin is such a large issue in the land of the free and home of the brave.  Do we have to elect an Hispanic, American Indian, Jew, Asian American, Woman, and every other species of human to demonstrate that racial justice has been achieved.

The election of a Black man to the highest office in our land does allow Black mothers to say to their children and mean it, “You could be the President of the United States.”  But what about a Hispanic mother, or Asian mother or Jewish mother.  With such great jubilation comes also the reminder that even in this grand experiement we call democracy there is still much very wrong.

We can blame “Wubba” for all its wrong and we would be wrong.  We put so much energy into this political thing and the reality is that it does so little.  Maybe the enduring parts are Supreme Court nominees but what is it about Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan that still impacts us today.

Where is the hope to change?  Where is the power that will alter the course of history?  Only 29 years of human existence has seen peace – 29 years of peace, the rest, war, tribal infighting, political insurrection and the like.

As much as I love to watch Obama give his “Yes we can!” speech, my mind tells me and history confirm, “NO WE CAN”T!”  Humanity is hopelessly given to its own delusions of grandeur.  We have no hope in this world.  Shower me with all the good stories you want and I can find 10 others to match that demostrate the slide of humanity into a pit of depair.

Where is the hope?  Not in Washington DC, not in Jefferson City, not in any state capital or human leader.  They come and go, promise and disappoint.  Bill Hybels is often fond of saying, “The church is the hope of the world!?  But only if it gets the insidious nature of the God’s passion for his world.

God has and will go to great measure to reach this world.  And the church could be his ally.  Unfortunately much of history has proved the church to be his obstacle.  George Hunter say in How to Reach Secular People, that the biggest obstacle for people finding God is Christians themselves.  Ouch!

George don’t be a “hater!”  In reality his is just speaking the truth. I know the years I spent in this state!  Rather than be a conspiracy of kindness unleashed on a world running from God, the church has become a society of  the self righteous requiring homogeneity for membership.  No exactly what God intended.

What a grand opportunity while awash in economic doom and gloom, international strife, and moral chaos.  Never has I been so energized about bearing a message of Hope not from this world.  A hope that came from another place and acted in unfashionable irrationality.  Jesus, God in the flesh, moved into the neighborhood (Message) and trafficed in a conspiracy of kindness this world had never known.

What a time to develop, sharpen and experience God’s kindness to this world.

Watching people respond to a new picture of God when this kindness is offered, is an addiction that I don’t think I will ever recover from.

Can’t wait for Sunday!  Again, I get to challenge over feed, under nourished, wealthy Christians to join God’s conspiracy of kindness in alleviating poverty around the world.

*My parents were both from Little Rock, Arkansas.  My mother was raised in a home of a man who stood on the lines shouting epithats at young black students as they attempted to attend Little Rock Central High School, my mother’s alma mater.  Something happened from one generation to the next!