I just watched Ryan Lobo's TED video and subsequently read his blog. What he tells is a fascinating story, one that includes man's desire for oblivion over humanity's misery.
War enjoys exciting press in our storytelling tradition. Photographs of men firing guns and charging forward make for great selling visuals. A Pandora’s box of pestilence, humiliation, rape, egos’, NGO’s, poverty and intensely debated editorials read by people too far away most of the time, usually do not. Our headlines are normally readable. Our images are often of the ordinary and the obvious. They reinforce our worldview and our view of ourselves. We can remain comfortable, removed from violence and its responsibility whether its 75 policemen butchered in a forest in North India or the disregard for "tribal" lives over generations. After all we are normal and ordinary people deserving of justice and the right to live peacefully.In other words we want to watch "heroes" fight versus to poverty. Why? I believe there is this innate need for us to see people fighting for what is right (or for what we perceive to be right) versus to seeing a person struggle because of poverty. The one takes us out of ourselves whereas the other reminds us of our daily struggles. One could argue that the struggles we have in the western world are nothing compared to what some nations and people in the world go through but that's an entirely different subject. The truth is, everybody struggles in his or her own way. Everybody has felt needs, whether emotional or physical. Watching somebody do something about it - such as fighting - might give us the feeling that we too can do something about our situations... please don't go around shooting people though! Whereas watching a person bound by poverty might not inspire us as much and even, heaven forbid, make us feel bad... are we egocentric or what?! Our human nature cries out for something that we can hold on to, something that will encourage us, something that will keep us going. In our carnal nature we turn within, making ourselves semi gods trying to convince ourselves that we've got everything under control even though we know deep down inside this couldn't be farther from the truth. Or we turn without, placing our happiness in other people's hands, desperately longing to hear a kind word, a compliment or an encouragement. I mean, what good is the semi god status if we have nobody there to worship us, right?
Lobo then goes on to tell a fascinating story about a warlord called General Butt Naked, so called because, as the name suggests, he used to fight naked. This man claims to have killed, single-handedly, over 10,000 people in Liberia's civil war, as well as using child soldiers to accomplish his atrocious crimes. The fascinating part of the story is what happens to this man as he becomes a Christian. He turns his life around, changes his name to Joshua and starts going around Liberia preaching the gospel to the people he once terrorized. He has gone back to those very people of whom he killed family members, tortured and who knows what else, and has asked for their forgiveness. Lobo expected him to get killed right away but the inexplicable happened, people have forgiven and are forgiving him. His life is now dedicated to helping and bettering the lives of the very children who were once in his army as well as preaching the gospel! I never cease to be amazed by the power the message of grace has on a person's life. This man, who killed thousands of people, is now an ambassador for Christ and advocating His message of love and peace. People aren't only listening to him, they're responding favorably to him by forgiving him! This is an amazing story of redemption, of how the Lord can take something so evil and twisted and make it into something wholesome and beautiful.
There is only one thing that we can hold on to in this ever changing world of ours. No it is not ourselves; we don't have things under control. No it is not others; people will always let you down no matter how loving they are to you today (one just needs to be married in order to know that!). The one thing that we can hold on to, the one thing that will never let us down, the one security we have in this crazy world is the Lord. Lodo said:
If someone as atrocious as the general can attempt to redeem himself, regardless of whatever idea of justice prevails or its execution and regardless of the good or bad opinion of anyone, there is hope.The general didn't redeem himself, Christ did. He'll probably be the first one to tell you that! Redemption doesn't come from within. We can't just one day decide "Today I'm redeeming myself!" No, redemption comes from without. It is given to us freely by Christ. He died a horrible death so that people like us and General Butt Naked could one day turn our lives around and start living wholesome and meaningful lives. Lives that will echo into eternity for Christ's glory.
Christ's sacrifice on the cross, therein lies our hope.
2 comments:
The concept of redemption and forgiveness is amazing. I can't say that I fully understand it because only God can. You say the general didn't redeem himself, Christ did and I totally agree. The same can be said for forgiveness, we can only forgive through Christ's grace.
I believe in God's mercy and that Christ redeemed us by dying on the cross but still I have to say that my own mercy toward others falls pretty short of the mark on occasion.
Thought provoking post.
And yes, looking at poverty, extreme poverty in which there seems to be no hope at all, makes the majority of us very uncomfortable because we don't really want to know. We don't really want to have to love like Christ. We don't want to acknowledge that we choose not to do enough. People suffer and will always, even Jesus himself said that. There will never be a way to help all the poor, all the sick, all the dying and such is our world. Thank God though that we are not called to try to change everything we are called however to extend mercy and help toward others where we can.
And we do have prayer and we do have hope that there will be justice for all people who suffer one day.
All I can say is; Praise the Lord we're not the ones who decide who needs to be redeemed and who doesn't! In our minds eye we'd never even allow the General to even come close to redemption but the Lord knows better, and see how He's using it? Pretty incredible stuff :o)
I agree, we can't do anything in our own strength, especially forgiveness. To me that is always a testimony to the Lord's work in a person's life.
Post a Comment