A Good Life
To be honest, I’ve been feeling really good about myself lately and have been contemplating how I’m living a good life, but…
It’s all been a facade.
A delusion based on the principle of self-interest.
My own personal interests have diverted my own good intent to live for the interest of others.
Let me explain in more detail.
Together We’re Free
“For all of us to be free, none of us can be enslaved. We need God. We need each other. “ - Anonymous
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Invisible Children just released a new documentary called Together We’re Free. It follows the course of IC’s most recent advocacy event, titled “The Rescue”. (Watch the film online for free at http://www.livestream.com/invisiblechildren under the “On Demand” section of the website.)
The event encouraged international youth who truly believe in and value creativity, idealism and sacrifice to tangibly make a difference by “abducting themselves.” These abductions represented the injustice that has been unleashed on east African children who’ve been taken from their families and forced to become soldiers in a rebel army known as the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army).
On Friday morning, I showed this film to the entire Invisible Children Uganda staff of 80, a unique group that is comprised of people from different regions, tribes and backgrounds from all over Uganda. At first, showing the new film seemed like a horrible and potentially damaging idea. I was worried that the culture of each Ugandan individual would collide with footage of an American culture that they’ve never experienced firsthand. The staff perspectives would be limited and would affect their understanding of the IC supporters featured in the film.
My mind was like a remixed album that continually screeched, “What will they think?” “What will they think?” “What will they think?”
Do Good To All Men
We are coming out of an era in American church life in which it has been possible for evangelical Christians to give a tithe to the church and then devote themselves financially to building the good life and all the while keep a clear conscience. It was an era in which for conservative evangelicals ethics meant primarily the avoidance of certain sins rather than the pursuit of good deeds. It was an era in which well-fed, well-clothed, well-housed, well-entertained evangelicals were able to maintain a distance and a communications blackout between themselves and the misery and destitution of our cities and many third world countries. But that era is ending. It is ending whether we want it to or not. The main reason it's ending is that the world has shrunk and will continue to shrink through worldwide media systems and sophisticated assistance channels, until we can no longer convince ourselves with impunity that the urban masses and starving Ugandans are not our neighbors whom Jesus told us to love as much as we love ourselves (to seek the good life for others with as much zeal as we seek it for ourselves).
Free Us to Love
“The call to put our possessions and honors in their proper perspective help free us to love.” – William Wilberforce
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Fate. Destiny. Purpose.
These words possess an implicating weight on our existence.
Think about it, we’ve all asked ourselves, “What is my destiny? Is it fate? How purposeful and important am I? Am I special?”
To be honest.
We’re mere slaves.
We’re slaves to our pride and self-importance. Deep down we want to be significant and praised for being us. We seek fame and fortune because we want to be larger than life. The problem with all of us wanting to be “on top of the world” is that we have to compete with each other to get there. The “I am special” becomes “I am better.”
He > I
Life has two sides (good & bad). It’s as if everyday there is a war going on between our flesh and spirit and if we don’t invite our Creator into each and every day than…well we’ll lose the war. We can’t fight the war on our own. We’re weak. He is strong.
He is greater than the air we breathe.
The past couple of weeks have vanished into an abyss. I have no idea where they’ve gone and I’m struggling to remember what I did. Ninety percent of it was consumed by work at Invisible Children Uganda. Creating budgets, program planning and personnel issues…being an administrator (like life) has its good and bad.
Next week I’ll be traveling to Lira (two hours south of Gulu) to meet with Living Water and Charity Water. The plan is that we’ll be working together to drill 20+ water wells in rural villages in northern Uganda to help in the resettlement process for hundreds of thousands who’ve been displaced by the war. It’s an exciting opportunity, not only to provide water and sanitation training, but also to partner with such reputable organizations. Thousands of peopled around the world die everyday because they don’t have access to clean water. Thousands. Everyday. This project is just a drop in the bucket (no pun intended), but like fish and bread it can quickly multiply.