Comfort or Truth…

One of the things I fight the most in my personal life, is my American up-bringing.  This is not to say I regret, or dis-value my American Identity, it simply just gets in the way.  Many time people believe that the people involved in our business are spiritual giants, that have such a good handle on biblical principles like love, selflessness, and sacrifice. Well I cannot speak for everyone, but for me, nothing could be further from the truth.  This experience has and I hope forever changed my view of the work of Christ.  It has shown me that no matter where I find myself, my job is the same. Infiltrate the culture with the Gospel by creative and efficient ways, while trusting the idea that “all things work together for good.”

My American-Western culture, however, is a double-edged sword. I am convinced that although we have an endless amount of resources, and are by far the a blessed nation, it is a huge road-block.  As Americans, we can say many good things about ourselves and our great country. It is a great place to live, and regardless of who is in charge every 4 years, it remains the best country to call home.  I value that. However, I value certain characteristics of it too much.  Comfort has a huge price tag in the US.  We will pay out the nose for comfort.  We buy a car with heated leather seats that turn on with a push of a button form inside our home because we don’t want to be “uncomfortable” on our way to a plush job that includes heating, air conditioning, and a nice guaranteed salary including a great 401k.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love heated leather seats.  My first car had them (although the windows didn’t work.)  And I coudn’t agree more that we should be good stewards of our money. So don’t misunderstand my point. I don’t believe any of these things are wrong.  The point is, we value comfort in every area of our lives.  “The couch is too lumpy,”  ” The mattress is too hard,” or “Our TV is just not big enough.”

We love our comfort, and that is a great thing about America, it’s comfortable.  Nice sedan to work with our frape-chino, go home for a nice meal, and fall asleep to Sports Center (at least thats what I do).  This is our life. Of course we Christians go to church and are very committed to in great spiritual things like family and youth group.  All great things. Important things.  We live on a platue however, that values comfort over truth.  When that happens, we very quickly become apathetic toward the rest of the world, becaue to entertain thoughts of what the world goes through on a daily basis is “uncomfortable.”

Please understand I am not accusing any of you of this attitude. These are areas that in which I see myself coming up short.  It’s so easy to look the other way.  If it’s the needy, or the Iraqi Refugee, it’s “more comfortable” to just not know anything.  Our comfort levals also control our opinions about international affairs.  We see things through American eyes, not the reality of situations.  Somehow, before coming here, it was very easy for me to have an opionon about the war in Iraq, about our government, and about what should or shouldn’t be done. I had a good cookie-cutter answer for each area. I was the typical, right-wing know it all.  Cookie-cutter answers don’t exist in reality.  It is never that simple. Our American comfort would say differnt, but it would be wrong.  Our simplistic attitudes and opionions sometimes end up costing many individuals and families thier homes, thier country, and thier lives.  Yet, living a mere 200 miles from the Iraqi border, it is easier to remove yourself from the reality of life for those individuals, and ignore it, then it is to see it.

Hears the facts. The Middle East conflict is more than close to boiling point. Depending on the location one would be discussing,  it has been over that point for a very long time.  At this point we are literally one push of a button away from a full blown world war. No annalist or press member can predict what this area of the world may look like by this time next year. Iran is gearing up, and Iraq is surrounded by those who would love to have their hands on the resources.  The decisions Israel, the United States and Iran will shape the future of this peace of real-estate.

As American Christians, we need to be praying for peace, and for God’s mercy on this area.  It is not enough to pray for the safety of our troops (although this is just as important).  We must pray for the peace of the Arab Nations.  Do not loose site of the reality of this conflict.  People have lost everything.  We cannot allow ourselves to feel continue to feel comfortable.  It’s time to value the truth of the Gospel above the comforts of our opinions. The Gospel is for the sick, needy and yes, the Arab.  Pray that God will open their eyes, and that more war will be avoided, and that in the middle of what ever happens, the believers will thrive, and that the truth will set their countrymen free.

Maybe you already have been doing this. Keep it up, and get the word out.  Our greatest weapon is prayer, not our missles or our trained military men and women.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the Sons of God.”

-Yesuah,  (Matthew 5:9)

The Good News is still the Good News…

Year 2007 is now underway, and it seems like we are in full swing here in the Middle East. Our break in Egypt was great. God really blessed us with good weather and with only afew hang ups. Most of our experiences there were good, except for one bus ride. Lets just say the Egyption Muslims were less than cordial about sharing a bus with 4 Americans. But it worked out ok. If you would like to see afew pictures from our trip, check out the photoblog.

God has truly blessed one of the friendships I have been working on latly. We will call him Freddy for now. Freddy and I recently met up for lunch at a little sandwich stand not far from my apartment. I had been getting kind of discouraged about this relationship. It had developed into a good friendship over the past several months, but the level of spiritual discussion had been next to nothing. I was begining to think that he was merely using me just to practice his English. The only topic of spirituality we had discussed up to this point was “The Passion” and what his feelings were towards the film. Although this sounds promising, it was quickly dismissed in the conversation as just a good movie. This afternoon, however, was different. We started talking about the winter break trips he and I had made and the different expieriences that had come our way. It was just like normal. Then it happened. He brought up the latest christian film production, “The Nativity.” He said that it was really great how people were combining the story’s from the Quran with other “sources.” The Quran has a version of the Virgin Birth of Isa in it, that is actually very close to the stories in the Gospels, with some differences. This was an excellent chance to share the differences between Islam and Christianity. The growing mentality of college students here in Jordan is that the two religions are very closly related, and even lead to the same God. A pluralistic view of God has become more popular here among the shabab (younger generation). We then began to discuss the differences in the two religions. Mainly, that the story of Isa in the Quran and the story of Jesus in the Ingeal (Gospels) are much differnt. That is, that Jesus did not die in the Quran, rather Judas was replaced by God on the cross to pay for his sin of betrayel. Although most Muslims know this difference, few know its significance. Freddy was not one of the few. I had the amazing opportunity to sit across from him and discuss the significance of the Cross of Jesus. The facts that He had to die in order for me to live in the grace of God here on Earth and forever in Heaven. This was his first encounter with the Gospel. As most of you know, I get passionate about the things I care so much about. I thought I had pressed him too hard in this coversaiton, but Skywalker and I are invited over for lunch at his home this week! The Gospel still works.