The Desert Way #2

"The radical challenge is to let God and the divine Word shape and reshape us as human beings, to feast each day on this Word, and thus grow into free and fearless people. Thus we can continue to witness to God's presence in this world, even when there are few or no visible results." Henri Nouwen

Blessed is He who is not offended in Me:

The minute a man or woman is called into the mission field, he or she loses all their worldly possessions. And with it go the comforts of citizenship and culture. But even more so, our identify which is so tied up in the American dream also becomes a thing of the past.  But the dominance of culture is so broad and so deep, it strongly influences the way in which we judge ourselves. When we look at ourselves through the eyes of the world, we see failure and pity. When we should be looking at Christ, at Jesus as our role model. He had no place to lay His head. He was homeless and without power in the world. 

After seminary I was full of ideas, having been exposed to the accumulated knowledge of many successful and top flight missionaries. Each one of my teachers were exciting and full of godly zeal for the Gospel. Ideas are a form of power. A new kind of power in a new kind of industry. The industry of good works and miracles. An industry of changing nations and being radical. 

It is easy to see why Judas was attracted to Jesus. Jesus had power. Power is the way to secure the nation from the Roman rule. Long they had dreamed of being sovereign once again. Judas wanted a good thing. He wanted national sovereignty. And so did I.  After years of pounding the pavement like a street cop, and with sparse fruit, I longed for the numbers that the big evangelists were talking about. I had one or two converts to Christ, they had their thousands. Not for my sake, but for the Gospel's sake and for their own well being. I had already seen the fruit of the Gospel in these little shanty towns. Every Christian home flourished. In former communist colonias, the houses blossomed with flowers, trees, grass and laughter. Before they had been gray, lifeless and depressed neighborhoods. The Mexican spirit was back!  Mexicans make terrible communists. It is not endemic to their national spirit. But, how will my mexican compadres adhere to the desert ways?