#blacklivesmatter vs #alllivesmatter

A conservationist in Africa began to be concerned about the Rhinoceros species.  Although there are approximately 20,000 rhinos today, about 20% of them are in captivity (zoos), while over 20% of the overall population is being poached each year due to the value of their horns.  At that rate it appears that the species cannot stand for long except behind the bars of incarceration.  

While this conservationist was starting a movement called the #rhinoslivesmatter movement, one of his friends told him that he was offended that he was saying that rhinos lives matter when in fact all the animals lives matter, including the African buffalo.  The conservationist told his friend, “Yes, the African buffalo is a wonderful animal too, but while there are 900,000 buffalo, the rhinoceros is endangered, and if something is not done it will go extinct.”  

The friend said, “But I always see pictures of rhinos in my flip calendar, and when I take my kids to the zoo the rhinos are always there.  I think I am going to start a movement called the #allungulatesmatter movement, proving that all ungulates, whether buffalo, bison, rhino, zebra, deer, or hippo.  It’s not just the rhinos that matter, but the other ungulates matter too.”

The conservationist replied to his friend, “I am in no way against other ungulates, but this is a critical point in history for this species of ungulate.  Rhinos are being murdered and incarcerated at rates beyond other ungulates so that very soon the only way to see a rhino will be behind the walls of a zoo or it horn that was cut off.  African buffalos are also a beautiful animal, but they are not being poached or taken captive at near the same rate.  The poachers have a great monetary incentive to kill the rhino, while no such incentive exists with the buffalo.  The reason I am saying #rhinoslivesmatter is because it seems that I am a lone voice in a world bent on the extermination of the rhino, and rhinos need someone to advocate for them before it is too late.  For you to say #allungulatesmatter misses the whole point that it is rhinos lives that are being poached in such numbers that threaten speciesicide.  Friend, would you understand that I need your help.  Are you listening?  Do you hear my heart?”

#blacklivesmatter in a Christian context is like one body part hurting and needing the body to respond to the hurt.  “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

I, as a white male, cannot understand what it is like for a black man in today’s culture.  So I pray that I will listen more to my black brothers than talk about them or to them.  I pray this as someone who loves to talk and is bad at listening.  “Lord, give me a listening spirit.  Amen.”

Christian idea: listen to my brother

A great book to provide information on the topic of the mass incarceration of black males is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.  

Two questions for the Christian family regarding the Syrian refugee crisis.

Question #1:  Should the United States allow refugees to come into the country?

This is a political question, in that it involves political leaders, elected officials, answering the question.  The governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, among others, have said, NO!, at least for now.  President Obama has answered Yes, and there is a political battle blowing up especially on facebook, with people stating both sides as their view.  I believe that this is a very easy question for the Christian family to answer.  Should our answer be based on fear, the fear of terrorists coming and killing us?  Without even going further into our refugee based nation, the quote,
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Without even going into the fact that Western White men were the terrorists who killed Native Americans and enslaved Africans based on fear. . . Without even going into the fear based idea of keeping people out which Donald Trump and George Zimmerman seem to agree so wholeheartedly on.. .. 

Should our answer be based on fear?  Should our answer not be based on compassion?  Compassion that if we do nothing we will be killing them, compassion that we would reach out in Christian love, even if that involves risk, even if that involves being misunderstood, even if that involves being hated, even if that involves death.  Should we not love, even to the point of death?  Why else are we here?  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?  That is the American Family, not the Christian family.

But this answer is easy for another reason.  It is easy because I may see the refugee at the mall, but not in my bathroom.  Inviting someone into my country demands almost nothing for the Christian family.  It is easy to post on facebook and say that we will allow, or should allow refugees into our country.  

Now for the harder question.
Question #2:  Should we allow a specific refugee or family of refugees into our home?

This is a personal question.  In a way though, the answer of yes or no are also based on either fear or love.  If I base my answer on fear I will never let a stranger in, for what if he kills me and rapes my children?  What if he beheads my whole family?  Many such questions are asked, and I will not say that nothing of the sort will happen, but I will continue my refrain, "Should our answer be based on fear?"  Do I really let a Syrian refugee family into my home?  Share our kitchen, our bathroom, our couch, our lives to the point that love is actually shown?  If love is the basis of my answer to this question I may do some crazy things.  The main objection that I see to this YES answer of mine is that why don't we let American homeless people into our homes.  While this is a very serious question, one also has to think through the roots of that person being homeless.  I have seen in my own personal life many homeless people being homeless because of alcohol or drug addiction, mental illness, or relational conflict.  I work at a homeless shelter specifically for such individuals.  The main root of the homelessness of the Syrian refugees is being in a War-torn land.  They are homeless, in huge numbers, due to war.  There is not a shelter large enough.  This is a specific crisis that demands a specific answer.  Many will read this and want to post something about fear.  If you base your response on fear you only prove my point.  Some, maybe a very few, will want to welcome Syrian refugees into your homes.  Some have already done it.  If the Christian family bases its answer to Question #2 on love, maybe we can show Christ to the people of Syria.

Family Sports

When I was a kid, my family would play family football or family basketball.  What that meant was often my dad and I against my brother and my mom.  I never played football for a school or peewee team, but I played with my family.

I coach soccer even though I know nothing about it.  I coach 6-10 year olds and help them work together.  It is fun.  But it is more fun when I text my brother and his family and my family, and possibly others, play soccer as a family.

Here are some reasons to do this.

1.  Instead of dividing up the Christian family into this person to ballet and this kid to karate and this kid to volleyball and this kid to soccer, the whole family plays together.  Sports can be a time of family unity instead of family division.

2.  It is cheaper than paying for the a. gas to go to all the games.  b.  entrance fees to all the games.  c.  registration fees for all of the sports.

3.  You get to play, which is something that will help you in being a healthy person.  Your body is a temple.

4.  Your child sees sports more as a fun activity and less like the be all end all.

5.  The "award" your child gets for playing is called "fun."  What more reward do they need?

6.  The family that plays together stays together.

7.  The research says that family sports and exercise are very good.  See below:

 http://www.commonhealth.virginia.gov/documents/hf/AllTogetherNow.pdf

http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1061376/the-benefits-of-exercising-as-a-family

http://familyfitness.about.com/od/motivation/a/bonding.htm

for white men: a white man's ideas on four dead black men

If you are already angry at the title, please know that this is intended for a specific audience:  white men.  Also know that although Tamir Rice was a boy, the man who would be also died.  This post is for my fellow white Christian men.  I am a white man.  I grew up in a small town which was almost exclusively white.  Almost no one in my town had any black friends.  I grew up not knowing who black people were.  There have been and there will continue to be many comments regarding the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and now Rumain Brisbon.  I understand that some of you are police officers yourselves or are family of police officers.  This post in no way is intended to demonize police officers.  In fact, the more police officers you get to know and be in relationship with, the more you come to love and respect police officers.  On the other side of the coin, the more I have begun to know and develop friendships with black men, the more I have come to love and respect black men.  This post is not intended to debate who is right and who is wrong.  The facts remain:  four black men are dead, one was just a boy.  How do we view these mourning families?  Do we view them as getting what they deserved?  Do we view these families as the problem of American society?  I believe that the less we know black people, the more we make assumptions like this, when really, we do not even know who black people are.  But in our internet posts we seem to know everything:  we could be the judge and jury in every case from Abel and Cain to Rumain Brisbon and the white officer who shot him.

If my wife is mad at me for something and I just keep telling her how wrong she is, our relationship is in a bad place.  If I say gruffly, which I have, “okay, I’m ready to listen. . . go ahead, tell me,” she is likely to stay silent.  My wife is quite intelligent and knows if I really want to listen or not.

Similar is the story of the white man and the black man in America.  Do I really want to listen?
Do I want white and black to be divided?  Do I want white and black to be reconciled?  Is my answer to that question the same as Jesus Christ’s answer?  This issue of reconciliation is not a political issue, but THE Christian issue:  God reconciling people to Himself and people to each other. 

I write this post for my fellow white men, men who are mostly in relationship to other white people.  I am suggesting, as a white male who still knows almost nothing at all about what it is like to be a black male in our society, the way towards racial reconciliation.

Very bold, you say, and you are right.  The way out is something that has been around for about two thousand years.  The way out is reconciliation in the church.  If churches continue to be white churches and black churches the racial divide will continue.  If churches become a family of believers united together across racial lines and begin to develop relationships in the Lord, I believe change will come.  I believe the time is ripe for pioneers, like my hero Ruby Bridges did in an elementary school, for people willing to take integration to the next level:  the church.   For such a time as this, we can take down the dividing wall on Sunday morning.  "It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o'clock on Sunday morning…," Martin Luther King Jr. spoke over 50 years ago.  What has changed in 50 years?   Are you willing to be a pioneer?  Am I?

Practically speaking, what can a white man do? 

Idea number one:  Join a black church. 

I believe that if even one person reading this decided to join a black church, not in your comfort zone, not in your denominational preference, something different from what you are used to, for the sake of learning to relate to black people even as I need to learn to relate to my wife, then you will be changed.  Yes, you getting up on Sunday morning and walking through the doors of a black church.  You can’t?  Why not? 

Idea number 2:  Start a multi-racial church.

If you absolutely cannot leave your church for some reason and join a black church, try to make your church into a multi-racial church.  For more information see http://www.christenacleveland.com/2013/10/a-road-map-for-diversity/   If many of us started being part of multi-racial churches, developing relationships across the racial divide, then I believe that change will come.

One last note on Rumain Brisbon:  When my mother died in an automobile accident, she hit another man head on and he died as well.  It was her car that swerved over and hit his.  She was at fault.  Maybe she fell asleep, maybe she reached down.  When the myriad of people came to the funeral to hug me, not one brought up how stupid it was for her to swerve into the other lane.  It was many of you that hugged me and grieved with me.  I ask that we give Rumain Brisbon’s wife and four children the same consolation.  Let us not shoot a dead man again. 

Idea number 3:  Speak no evil of black men on the internet.

Words are very powerful.  I have used words many times to hurt and wound people.  I have also used words to heal people.  The words we put on the internet are very powerful.  Let us not say one bad word on the internet or anywhere for that matter. 
Idea number 4:  Ask God to soften your heart towards black men.
Satan cheers when my heart is hardened to anyone.  God does not cheer at that.  It is black men who are dying in the street and being locked up in jail in staggering disproportion to white men.  Weep with their Heavenly Father.  Weep with their families.  Could we, as the family of God, grieve together over the death of Rumain and the other men?  What if Rumain was Danny Smith instead?  What would you say on the internet if I had been killed?  Those Christians reading this, let’s remember what Jesus said in the parable of the sheep and the goats at the end of Matthew 25.  You can read it for yourself.  Whatever I do for the least of these, the black widows and orphans, the black men who fill the prisons, the black men being shot and killed, I do for Jesus Christ, the King of all Kings.

For those reading this who may be grieving the loss of someone, whether it be one of the four dead black men, or the million black men in prison (see http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet) I take time now as I end this post to weep over your loss and our loss.

Why I have always liked LeBron James

I started liking Lebron James when he was a sophomore in high school and he was ranked the best high school basketball player by Parade magazine that comes with Sunday papers.  I said he was going to be great - that he was great, and that he was my second favorite basketball player ever (I began liking Michael Jordan when he was injured early in his career).  During mock drafts with my brother and friends I picked BronBron over the college players.  They all laughed at me.

Then our referee friend told a story of LeBron grabbing the top of the backboard (read that again) and hanging there during pre-game at a high school basketball game.  The laughter slowed down quite a bit.  I watched him on DVDs from Kenya while we were missionaries and he was in high school.

Then everyone knew him.  It did not take long.  I rooted for the Cleveland Cavs and LeBron James.  So did a lot of people.  I had the opportunity, like many others, to watch him at a game in Indianapolis.  He has obviously been blessed with ability from God.

Then he decided to go to Miami and everyone began to hate him.  People did not hate me when I went to Kenya, or Kentucky for that matter.  Why would anyone hate someone for moving?  Isn't this, as I have heard all my life, a free country?  Or is LeBron James really the PROPERTY of any man or town or state?  When kids from Cleveland or Akron go to college somewhere else, are their pictures burned and their memories erased?

Maybe we need to rethink what it is to root for someone versus what it is to root against someone.  Why the great need to root against anyone?  Why, as a Hoosier must I root against the Boilermakers?  Why, as a Buckeye must I root against the Wolverines?  Why as someone from Ohio must I root against #6 Heat?

So as Lebron comes back home I will still root for him.  If you are a Heat fan or a Kobe fan or a whoever fan, remember - you do not have to root against LeBron James.  I won't root against your team or your player or your son or your daughter.

That is why I have always liked LeBron James.   Looking forward to a great season.

Pants on the ground

“Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, looking like a fool with your pants on the ground, pull them up” was the song going through my head as I saw the man with his pants at his knee and all of his underwear showing.  I thought to myself, “Doesn’t he realize that is shameful, and that shame is something to avoid?  Doesn’t he know that the lifestyle of pants on the ground is one that leads to incarceration, where they take all your clothes, aka – all your clothes are on the ground?  So it begins with pants on the ground, a wasted life.”

Such were my thoughts as Jesus tried to speak to me.  I say tried because it took some time before I listened.  But faintly I began to hear Jesus say something to me.

“Danny, you are judging him based on only what he looks like.” 

Then Jesus said, “Let me show you something.”

He took me back 2000 years ago to where it started for him, a wasted life.

It started with the Pharisees judging him (Luke 5) much like I judged the man with the sagging pants.  Then Jesus was incarcerated (Luke 22) and he was shamefully stripped of all of his clothing three times (Matthew 27) and as he hung on the cross and his clothing on the ground being bartered for, they mocked him with songs similar to “Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, Jesus, you are looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.”

If Jesus died today in your town or state or country, what would the crowd say about him?  What would the Facebook posts say, or the twitter feeds?  We would say the same things we say about the people who are being executed today by lethal injection and all other means around the world. 

Jesus dying on the cross was the “foolishness of God which is wiser than the wisdom of men” (1 Corinthians 1).   In fact, this foolishness of God is the wisest thing that exists, and the only way by which we may become wise.  The weakness of God, Jesus Christ with his pants on the ground, is the only way for us to have strength.  The condemnation of Christ is the way we have no condemnation.  The incarceration of Christ is the way our prison bars are swung open.  The shame of Christ is our honor, the stripping of Christ clothes us with righteousness, and it is by His stripes we are healed, and it is through His death that we have life.  What Jesus wanted to show me is that the man with his pants on the ground was really a picture of Him. 

“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The Pharisees said, “He has a demon, he is a blasphemer.”  God said, “He is my chosen son.”

I said, “Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.”  God says, “I choose him.”

We say, “She is too sick.”  God says, “I choose her.”

We say, “He is a worthless alcoholic.”  God says, “I choose him.”

We say, “He is a sex offender, unfit to live.”  God says, “I choose him.”

What do they say about you?  God says, “I choose you.”

Why does God choose me?

Because He loves to show how strong the weakness of Christ is.

Because He loves to show how wise the foolishness of Christ is.

Because it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Christ, and Him crucified.

“I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Paul added nothing to the gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ and him crucified.  We must add nothing either, not “pull up your pants,” or sag them, or drink, or don’t drink, or be circumcised, or be uncircumcised.

When we add one thing to the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified we poison it.  For if we add one thing we say that Jesus Christ and him crucified is not enough.

What if people take the grace of God for granted, what if they abuse the love of God? . . .

It was then that I realized. . .

Oh, the foolishness of God to love us without condition, whether we respond to your love or not, for abused you were, and taken for granted you were.

The foolishness of God.

cherry trees and a lilac hedge

This is my idea of late.  We recently tore down our garage in hopes of creating a backyard, and our backyard still has its challenges, between our dogs keeping the mud muddy and the various empty beer cans, cigarette packs and God only know what else scattered as litter as the wind blows it to and fro.  Our backyard would possibly be a challenge to a green thumb, and our thumbs are not green.
At first I thought I would grow blueberry bushes as a hedge, and I was uber excited about having enough blueberries to supply our family and the apartments behind our house.  But there was this thing that I learned about growing blueberry bushes:  the soil needed to be quite acidic, with a PH around 4 or 5.  So I did a PH test of our soil that I learned over the internet which was, 1.  collect a sample of said soil in two cups.  2.  pour vinegar in one cup and baking soda mixed with water in another cup.  3.  If the vinegar cup bubbles you have alkeline soil, and if the baking soda cup bubbles you have acidic soil.  Eventually, the vinegar cup bubbled.  So scrap the blueberry hedge.
When I went to college, there was a lilac bush outside of the library and smelling that bush was one of the best smells ever for me, and the more I read about lilacs, the more I wanted a hedge.  So now my idea is to plant two cherry trees as "fenceposts" on the ends and then along the fence to plant four or five lilac bushes.
Will this idea work?  I do not know, especially because in our house we love love love BING cherries, although I am not a fan of the bing web browser.  So will our bing cherries and our tartanian mix well and grow well and get enough water and not get to cold?  Maybe you can tell me.

Child Sponsorship

When my wife and I were newly married we sponsored a child through Compassion International.  He was about 6 years old I think, and we would write to him and he would write to us, and our small monthly funds to him helped him to go through the Compassion International program, which included education.  We got a letter from our sponsored child recently, who is now 19, that he has completed all of his courses.  Let me tell you from my perspective the value of our relationship with him.  We got to see him grow in the Lord through his letters.  I wish my handwriting was as good as his was, but he writes on and on about his relationship with Jesus.  I don’t think that child sponsorship is the answer to all of missions, but I do think that it helps connect the busy Americans like ourselves to the poor throughout the world.  If you do not sponsor a child, you should consider it.  Compassion International is one of many Christian child sponsorship programs. 

http://www.compassion.com/

Indian Statues

In the city I live in there are statues of Indians.  The state I live in is Indiana, meaning place of the Indians.  Of course, if you read your history book, even the highly euro-centric slant most history books are could not avoid that calling them Indians was thinking they were in India.  They, Chris and the lot of the white folk, were off by the Pacific Ocean and half of Asia, so in essence they were off by half the world.  Geographically speaking they would have been closer to call them Brits.
So the Native Americans used to live where I live.  I have walked around this town and all you see of Indians is statues.  It makes me think of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when the Witch turns all the Narnians into stone.  That seems to be what the culture I am a part of, White culture, has done.  We have turned all the Native Americans into stone.
Our Christian Nation with Christian forefathers killed, raped, hung, starved, chased, and genocided the Native American tribes.

When will Aslan come and blow the statues and turn them back into Native Americans?

This is not Narnia.  The Native Americans are few, and we, as the Church, must ask - what to do?

I am a white person.  My culture killed and genocided as many Native Americans as they could.  They stole, killed, and destroyed, just like the Devil.  My people did horrible things, even in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For any Native Americans who may be reading this:
"I am so sorry for what we have done to you and your ancestors.  We were wrong and what we did was evil.  I ask humbly if you will forgive us.  We know that these terrible wrongs we did cannot be repaid because we can never bring back the years, the tribes, the families, the people.  We lay ourselves at your feet and weep."

Picking up hitchhikers

Is it a good idea to pick up hitchhikers or not?  I usually side with not picking up hitchhikers because first of all it is illegal, and second who knows what situation you could find yourself in. All that said, I want to share with you how impactful picking up hitchhikers can be.

It was in the years following the Great Depression and a widow with four children told the youngest, a boy, that he would have to make it on his own.  He was 12 I think.  That boy felt rejected and decided to go to California.  Why?  Beats me.  I am not sure if he even knows.  He got picked up by a truck driver, and the boy told the truck driver he was going to California.  The truck driver asked the boy about his family and learned that he had an older sister in Ohio.  So the truck driver drove the boy to Ohio instead of California.  The boy went to his sister's and his sister took him in.  

Later the boy thought about that truck driver, and thought that he was his guardian angel.

If that man had not picked up my grandfather and taken him to his sister, much would be different in my world.

My grandfather tells that story a lot these days, and he realizes that God can work amazing things though people who pick up hitchhikers.

Mind you, the hitchhiker was 12.

On the other side of the coin, I would say it is often a very bad idea to pick up hitchhikers, especially of the opposite sex if you are alone, or anyone if you are alone.  

What are your thoughts on picking up hitchhikers?

Urban Light Community Church

We go to a great church.  Why is it so great?  Because we have a vision for people being reconciled to God and each other.  As Jesus Christ invites people to follow him, they must follow him together.  Our pastor recently got back from a sabbatical.  It is an honor to be with him in ministry because he is willing to see ministry as a team, and he is a humble leader.  We seek to be a place where reconciliation happens, where Jesus' prayer for us in John 17 is realized, "that they would be one, just as You are in Me and I am in You."

http://www.urbanlightmuncie.com/#!
Here is a part of our story:

Urban Light was started by a few adults and a bunch of kids who lived in the same neighorhood together.  In the beginning, we didnt really reflect the diversity of our community real well.  But we were moving toward the vision God had given us to reconcile people to God and to each other and to raise up leaders from within the community.  God was faithful and did what he said he would do  he raised up an unlikely group of people from all kinds of different backgrounds with all kinds of different issues to lead his church.

In the early days, we had just a small group of adults who met for Bible study and worship.  We bought some rough houses in the neighborhood, fixed them up, and lived in them.  We were starting small businesses such as window washing and house cleaning with the hope of hiring people who needed a second chance or who had been overlooked by the system.  We planted a community garden and infiltrated our neighborhoods with flowering fruit trees.  We had backyard Kids Bible Clubs and BBQs.  But stuff couldnt stay small for long.  The 10-15 people who breathed a bunch of Kerosene fumes in the drafty garage on Madison St. (the historic line of segregation in Muncie) grew into a group of worshippers who met together in some cabins in our nearby inner-city park.

Our gospel choir was formed, our childrens ministry grew, new people either moved in to our community or joined the church from the community.  People came out of drug addictions and prostitution.  Demons were cast out of people.  We did some serious community organizing and kicked off a huge annual block party that is more like a street fair with inflatable games, hip-hop, BBQ, B-ball tourneys, rock climbing wall, and more.  As residents, a bunch of us tracked through the county building and convinced the alcoholic beverage commission to revoke the liquor license of our local strip club, which was a haven for prostitution, drug dealing, and violence.  Afterward, we purchased the property and tore the rat-trap down.  We formed a partnership with another local urban church: Deliverance Temple, which has been ministering on the south side for years.  Together, we run two addiction-recovery and prisoner re-entry houses, the Conley House for men and the Urban Lighthouse for women.  Our ministries are a model of what it looks like when people come together across race and neighborhood barriers to love people with the love of Jesus.

Snowmass

I had the opportunity of a lifetime when I was a sophomore in high school to go on spring break with one of my friends and his family to Snowmass, Colorado.  Downhill skiing on a mountain, as opposed to a hill, is a truly amazing experience.  Once at the top it was about 4 miles to the bottom.  I have had a lot of amazing experiences in my life so far - skiing at snowmass is high up on the list.  Also, there is the bonding of a long road trip with a family that I loved and came to love even more over that week and again in my senior year when they took me again.  So here is my idea for your family and mine, to take note of what that family did for me.  They introduced me to downhill skiing, and they also took me along on their family vacation.  That family, in a very real sense, is my family.  I am forever connected to them.  I love them.  They love me.
Oh yes, it is quite a risk to take in a child for another family for a week of spring break vacation.  High risk, high rewards, much like skiing down the mountain.  As they say on the slopes, to turn is to admit defeat.
So if you have not, consider sownhill skiing as a family vacation idea.  Also, consider taking another child with you on your vacation.  It could shape that child's life forever.

Location. Location. Location.

My Grandpa always told me that the three most important things to consider when buying a house are 1. Location. 2. Location. 3. Location.  I think he is right, but people have different opinions of what location is important.  Do I want to make sure that the location. . . is not in the “bad” part of town?  . . .is in a “good” school system?  . . . will increase in value because it is a prime location spot?  Do I want to live. . . on a hill or mountain?  . . . near family, or away from family. . .where there are lots of things “to do”?   . . . in the middle of nowhere?  . . .with a big yard?  . . . by the ocean, or on a lake?  Oftentimes it seems that we choose the location of our homes solely based on our selfishness.  Could it be that there is Biblical Support for a theology of Location, or does location have nothing to do with Jesus Christ? 

“And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent in our neighborhood.”  Jesus thought location important too.  He left the best part of the universe, the best school system, the most prime real estate to live in a dark valley away from his Father.  He alone could offer the complaint with sincerity, “There is nothing to do here.”  He came to the bad part of the universe for us and was killed, and yet it seems that our main objective at times is to not move to the bad part of the world and be killed. 

You may think that I am tooting my own horn, since I live in the bad part of town, and lived in Africa.  But have I really risked anything at all?  What about Burma?  North Korea?  Afghanistan?  Somalia?  Who is going there?  You may say, “Oh, you can’t gothere!  They won’t let you!  They would kill you!”   If The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, can’t I go somewhere for the sake of the gospel, even if it means finding a way, and dying.  Jesus found a way to come and die, and yet we are always avoiding any risk of death.

Will my kids say, “Yeah, Dad always wanted to protect us, he made sure nothing happened to us. . . but he never really had anything he was willing to risk his life for, and he taught us to be safe, and to never risk our life for anything.  He taught us to walk away from the cross.”  I do not want my kids to say that. 

Maybe this post offends you.  Maybe it will be my kids who teach me this idea of Location when they go to Burma, North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia to pour out their lives for the gospel.  What a waste. . . . if they do not pour out their lives for the gospel, even unto death.