It's been an eventful couple of weeks so expect a number of new posts in the next week or so as I have time to process through things and write down my thoughts. My roommate Tom's been in and out of the hospital and my girlfriend, Amy, came to visit for a week on a vision trip with 19 students from UW-Madison. But for now I wanted to give everyone a quick update on Gameboy.
This past week, one of our fellowship students Will and I met up with Gameboy over lunch. We talked about how Thanksgiving was coming up soon and how Amy was here visiting. Eventually we transitioned into talking about church and about how God uses the Bible to teach us and speak to us.
Gameboy wants to believe in Yahweh as the One and Only True God and Jesus Christ as His Savior but he seems to be waiting for an experience.
An experience with God.
Actually, Gameboy's desire to experience God before he "believes" is a common one here in this country. Heck, all of us want to experience something or "feel" it before we give our lives to it.
Will and I explained how we experience God on a day-to-day basis in the decisions that we make, what we choose to do with our days, etc.
Gameboy's next question was an interesting one:
He said, "But the Bible is unchanging. The decisions you make change. So how does God speak to you through the Bible in different kinds of situations?"
We explained that when we have the Spirit of God living inside of us, He teaches us not simply by gaining knowledge from Scripture but by actually teaching our hearts and our minds through what we read. The three of us could read the same story in the Bible but all learn something different from it.
But I wanted to clarify that certain things are always true, and some things should be true of all Christians.
All Christians should care about the things God cares about, love others, and try to become more and more like Jesus. No exceptions.
Next, when Gameboy asked how Will or I had practically experienced God in our decision-making, I told him two stories. The second of which was how I ended up in East Asia.
I told him, "Even though the words in the Bible always stay the same, from beginning to end it is clear that God cares about the entire world and wants Christians to show Christ's love not only to the people close to them but people everywhere. There were many things I could have chosen to do after I graduated but I felt like through the Bible, God was telling me that it would be good to go to East Asia, learn the language, experience a new culture, and make new friends and love them well in the process."
There are certain students that just "get it," and when they do, it often makes for interesting commentary on the Church because they are able to see things for what they really are, no excuses. They see how things are supposed to be if we're truly following the Bible and then how things really are in the world.
It's black and white to them.
If we truly believe in this God that we preach, our lives will reflect that and we'll live according to God's Word.
And they're quick to notice when there's a discrepancy.
Gameboy is one of those students.
In a single phrase, Gameboy begged a question that should pierce the hearts of Christians everywhere. He said,
"If the Bible tells Christians to show Christ's love to people all over the world, why aren't more of them doing it?"
He genuinely does not understand why, if God loves people all over the world and commands His followers to do the same, more people are not taking action.
All I could say in response was, "They probably should, shouldn't they."
But I also tried to assure him that even if Christians all over the world aren't picking up and moving to different countries for extended periods of time, many invest their time praying for the nations of the world and releasing financial resources to those in need.
But I couldn't help but leave that conversation with a bitter taste in my mouth.
The truth is, most "Christians" probably do little, whether through praying, giving resources, or just picking up and going abroad to help show the love of Christ to people outside their borders.
It's the "super-Christians" that do that sort of thing. The "super spiritual" ones who give their money or their time to minister to the needs of others around the world.
But as Francis Chan emphatically points out in a recent sermon, "Show me in the Bible where there's this distinction between unbelievers, Christians, and 'super-Christians.' You either are, and you whole-heartedly follow God, or you're not."
But the problem goes even deeper.
There seems to be not only a lack of compassion and action globally, but also domestically.
In a country where an estimated 3.5 million people will experience homelessness in a given year and only about 9% of churchgoers tithed at least 10% of their income in 2004, something has to give.
I'm by no means saying that one of these statistics is causing the other, but it's certainly not helping either.
Maybe I'm preaching to the choir, but even for myself, I need to constantly be re-evaluating how I'm doing in this area. What am I doing to help others experience Christ not only to the students in this country, or the needy I walk by every day in this country, but also to those in need all over the world?
Am I praying for those losing their jobs all over the world due to the current economic crisis? Am I praying for those who have lost loved ones in India? Am I using what resources I have to give to my local church or to those in need?
We serve a God who loves the world. He loves justice. He cares for the oppressed.
And He's chosen us to be His ambassadors to a broken and hurting world.
It's high time we DO something to live up to that calling.
-CK
*Please pray for Gameboy! At the end of our conversation, he said, "I know how important and significant this decision [to trust the Lord with my life] is, so I do not want to rush into it." I told him that I agreed and it meant a lot to me that he would take it seriously.
At this point, words have done all they're going to do and it's just a matter of waiting for our living God to breathe life into Gameboy and allow him to experience Him. It's only a matter of time until we have a new brother!
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