Weeping For Injustice

Update 7.24.11 

This week I wanted to give you all the opportunity to hear from George himself about the Initiative.  Hope this video answers some questions you may have about what I am doing and working with addiction in general.

Weeping for Injustice

Friday during devotion George told us about a mother who he had never met that had emailed him about help for her son.  The young man is severely addicted to drugs and had just recently stolen from his father and took off.  The woman explained that she had not heard from him and was worried about him; that he had tried many programs and always returned to his addiction, and she asked George for help/ advice.

                As George talked about this story I could tell he was getting emotional and he explained that he did not really know what to do with an email like that.  If you watched the video above you know that there are only three real options for an addict who does not want to be well: institution, prison, or death.  George was conflicted that he had very little to offer this woman as encouragement even though he would like to have good news for her; George knows that he cannot help this boy or any addict that doesn’t want to get well.  George connected this to a point that as the men in the Initiative we must take recovery seriously because the stakes are high.  We have to avoid petty arguments, and be willing to be humble and gracious as we live in community so that we can avoid conflict that may cause a brother to relapse (with some specific current examples since there was a little dissention in the houses this week)...

                Finishing up, George asked us all to join him in prayer for this young man, feeling like this was the best way we could try to help the young man.  I was really hit hard by the story, by George being emotional, and by the reality of the stakes of addiction.  As we began to pray, I couldn’t help but weep (as much as I tried not to cry in front of the guys).  I began to pray and ask for peace for the boy’s family, but not really knowing what to pray for, I asked God to do something that would stop this boy’s path from ending in death and, still trying to figure out what that might look like, I asked God to send someone but, feeling that was inadequate for the situation, my heart cried out “God send an Angel!”   I will most likely never know the end of this young man’s story in this life, but I hope and pray that I will know him when I see him in heaven...

The biggest reason I wanted to tell this story is because I wanted to share something I believe.  Sometimes when we are faced with injustice the only Biblically orthodox appropriate response is to weep.  Do you know the feeling of that overwhelming emotion welling up inside of you?  I realize that it is hard for some of us to weep but there is something deeper that comes before tears...  One very cool thing is that Jesus wept, and he also had the experience immediately before it. 

In John 11:30-35, as Jesus is coming back to a dead Lazarus and a mourning town/ Martha and Mary, he is profoundly moved when he sees Mary’s weeping and desperation.  By verse thirty five he is weeping, but what happens in the Greek of the verse before is too difficult to express cleanly in English.  Most translations say that Jesus is “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” which is a good translation but does not present a full enough picture.  The words in Greek that are used are ἐνεβριμήσατο (en e bri may sa tah)— “deeply moved”, which also literally means groan or snort (internally for Jesus) and is often used to describe the groan/whinny of a horse; and ἐτάραξεν (e ta rak sen)- “troubled” but also stir up or disturb.  I know this is sort of academic, but the reason I think these definitions are cool is because these words imply that something within Jesus is physically against what is before him, it is as if his spirit literally groans within him to see Mary weeping, and on a large scale at injustice.  Like the whinny of a horse something is stirred up/ rises  up in Jesus that is angry, troubled and disturbed by injustice to the point that we get verse 35 “Jesus wept.”  If we believe that Jesus is fully God then we have to believe from context that in this moment he knew that he was going to raise Lazarus AND YET HE WEEPS.  The victory over death itself is about to happen, a dead man is about to walk out of a tomb and Jesus weeps; not only because he loves his friend but because his spirit is so trouble by injustice.  Guys, I think we can learn so much from this vulnerable moment of our savior.  Do we weep for injustice, is it contrary to our spirit, does that same Spirit of Christ really live in us if it is not?  We are confident and sure that Jesus has already won the battle and yet the injustice of the world deeply moves us. 

I don’t say this to condemn anyone who can’t cry, or to try and make anyone feel guilty about not “caring enough” about injustice.  It is not vindictive or from a place of judgment, but honestly in humility to try and say, “let’s try to be a people more like our savior, let’s be willing to really encounter injustice to let truth penetrate our protective walls in a way that it effects us emotionally/spiritually.”  And, let’s be a people that, like Jesus, does not stop at weeping, but with power acts in a way that redeems injustice for God’s glory!  There was no doubt that day when Lazarus walked out of his tomb that God had moved. Maybe the reason why we don’t feel like we see this as much today is because we have not really allowed ourselves to be deeply moved in spirit... 

Thoughts, responses? (Comment below)

The Accident

Unfortunately, this week Will and his fiancé Laura were in an accident. Someone T-boned them at a bad intersection.  Thankfully they are both fine.  Interestingly, while Will was talking to the police officer on scene this conversation happened:

The Officer: There is this group of Christian people that all live together and they are trying to change the city or something.

Will:  Oh, Really?

The Officer: Yea.

Will:  Yea, I am one of those people.

The Officer: Oh cool...

                When police officers see educated persons who are white in this section of Tampa they immediately question why they would be here.  First they assume drugs.  When you get them past that point they are usually a little confused and, for the members of the Underground, this is the place where they explain who they are and what they are trying to do.  The reason the above conversation is significant is because this police officer knew about the Underground community!!! 

WORK - Dale’s Story

This week we started two house remodeling jobs for a new company.  Going into the week we knew that the stakes were high: work hard and up to expectations, and then have work for the Contracting business forever... Or not.  Thankfully, the week was incredible.  While in the first interview about work, the “Bosses” had no interest in what the Initiative was and only cared about how much work we could get done.  But, as the week went on, they were so impressed with how much work Initiative Builds had gotten done that when George walked in, the ten staff at the office walked out to see him since we were  “kicking butt on the jobsite.”  The bosses listened to what the Initiative was about and were even talking amongst themselves about how cool it was. 

This makes me think of two passages and it makes me really proud of the Initiative Men.  First, it makes me think of Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Second, it makes me think of 1 Peter 2:12  “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”  The Men in the Initiative worked in a way this week that by their deeds the work of God was visible to their “pagan” bosses.  They worked hard.  They worked hard in sobriety.  They worked hard in sobriety for their own sobriety.  They worked hard in sobriety for sobriety by the grace of God.  They worked hard in sobriety for sobriety by the grace of God and indeed he was glorified...  It showed.  It shows.  (I had a friend explain that this was confusing what I mean is that even though some of these men have barely gone two weeks since having a drink they are required to be sober to work with the Initiative.  On top of this the work itself is a strategy of the Initiative “work therapy” – so they are literally working towards and for their own sobriety.)

Anyway, one of the best parts of this new work for the Initiative is that it’s brought almost all of the men together in one place for the week, and it allowed us all to work as a team.  We spent the week together and were able to get much accomplished.  One of my favorite times of the day was lunch.  At lunch we all got to sit together and just talk, usually about stories from the guys’ eventful pasts.  I can’t remember which day he told the story, but Dale’s story this week took the cake.  We were all talking about the open container law (one of the guys had an old charge that he had to go to court for this week) and, more specifically, Dale’s Dixie cup theory.  Dale explained that the homeless are constantly getting open container tickets and then repeat offender violations and jail time.  But, he explained that he sees tons of college students and other people walking in and out of clubs and down the street with their drinks in Dixie cups all night but never getting in trouble.  So, if you are going to drink in Ybor, drink out of a Dixie cup.  We all gave him a hard time about his theory so for emphasis he told a story about how he got an open container charge when he didn’t even have an open container.   Here is a recreation of his story,

Well I was just drinking in an alley with a buddy of mine and all of a sudden he fell over right on his head and knocked himself clear out.  I went over to see if he was alright, but I couldn’t get him to wake up and he had a pretty good egg on his head.   I only had a little beer left in my can (motions with hand) so I downed it, threw the can over my shoulder and I dragged him down the alley towards the street.  Right as I was getting to the road police cars and an ambulance rolled up, apparently someone must have seen me dragging him outta the alley and called them.  A police officer walked up to me and asked if we had been drinking and I told him yes.  Then he went back to the car and when he came back he gave me an open container.  So, when I went to court I just told the judge, ‘you think I coulda dragged a two hundred something pound man out of the alley with a beer in my hand.’ 

While it is impossible to recreate Dale’s unique voice and style of telling stories, what I can say is that he brings a lot of laughter to the jobsite (the ridiculousness of the idea of what someone might be thinking as they see Dale dragging an unconscious man down an alley had all of us laughing).  There are always typical Dale responses.  For example this week I asked him to tell me about his tattoos and he replied, “They hurt.”  He always has something interesting to say and he has a lot of funny stories and perspectives, and although they come out of a difficult past, that’s what makes Dale who he is and we love him for it!

Spiritual One-Three Liners from the summer

Here are some of the “one liners” from my classes and church that I really like so I figured I would share them!

“It is our care for the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of our many opponents.” –Tertullian

Knowledge is arrogance when it is rooted in us but a gift of the Spirit when it comes from relationship with God.

The Ethic of Agape (What would love do?) <-- this is the main thing, and the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Jesus was a person for others, his followers must be persons for others!

We can’t be the tragedy of a middle school dance; our relationship with Jesus moves us, almost involuntary, like good music.  This is the music we hear and we must dance.  (about caring for the poor and lost)

We are not the church unless we do damage to the gates of hell

Our actions do not make us holy unless they are done in reverence to God and are inspired by him

The cross does not offer a transaction but a transformation

Grace is the power to provide the exception --- God gives grace to the humble, humility is the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  So God gives grace to those who fear the Lord, Grace is power, God gives power to the humble. (insert the beatitudes)

Jesus didn’t die to make us Christians, he died to make us true human beings, back in touch with our creator.

We are taught by martyrs that we are not tested by gain but by our willingness to suffer.  Any ideology is spread through sacrifice.

To be a Christian is to not resist evil à turn the other cheek à double the evil and expose it for what it is

We are not the church if we do not do mission. We are not Jesus people if we do not proclaim his name to the world.  There should be no doubt

The degree in which you dabble in wealth is the degree in which you lose your footing to be prophetic to power

Help the Christians in your fellowship know that they are immortal and you will have a courageous community.

What to Pray for:

The biggest thing this week iis please pray the God will help me to finish well here, and that he will help me prepare to get back on campus.  Pray that I will be diligent enough to do the work and planning that is necessary to be ready as a leader, but more importantly that I will not forget that all of my planning is a waste if I am not following God.  Pray for me that I will remember to push deeper into prayer and my quiet time and to not let planning take over my relationship with God!