Blogs are an interesting concept to me. It gives normal people like me a venue to
share my thoughts and opinions to everyone on the planet that has access to a
computer. Frankly, that’s a little
scary. I think blogs can be a good thing if the
reader is able to put it in the context the writer intended it to be. That brings me to my disclosure. Our blog posts are based on our experiences,
opinions, and hopefully some inspired insights.
We, especially me, are certainly not experts on the subjects we write
about, but through time and experience of walking through this journey God
calls life, we sometimes feel prompted to share some of those thoughts with
those that choose to read them. Here are
some of mine of late. J
There are a number of things here in Haiti that
can be frustrating to me at times. Many
of you that have come to Haiti and spent any time with me in the truck know
that one of them is traffic. There are
days that the traffic can consume you to the point that just your thoughts
cause you to have to repent. Part of the
frustration is that most of the time, there is no explanation for it. It is what it is.
Recently something else has been getting to
me. It is a simple label that states
“Made in China”. My father always said
“you get what you pay for” and as usual he is right. I’m not saying that all things that come from
China are not made well but there definitely seems to be a business concept that
is being carried out with certain lines of products that they make. The concept
of making things that look nice, new and shiny on the shelf at the hardware
store or in the show room of a dealership with a price tag that is a quarter of
the other comparable products have proven to be very profitable for the country
of China, especially from developing countries like Haiti.
An example of this is my motorcycle. As I said earlier, traffic is horrific here
at times and my gracious wife knows how hard it can be for me so she allowed me
to get a motorcycle to help ease that frustration. I have been riding motorcycles all my
life. So I was excited for the
opportunity to get one again. I went to
look at some different kinds and came to find that a Honda was going to cost
about $6000 and I was going to have to order it, which was going to take weeks,
maybe even months to get in. Then I saw,
right down the street, a Sukida dealership.
Sukida is a Chinese brand of motorcycle that I could get right off the
show room floor, with the same size engine, and ride it home for $1600. It looked appealing to me and the price was
right so I went ahead and got it. I felt
so good about it, and loved the cost so much that I told others how great it
was and even went in with Drew and bought another one for him to use over the
summer and then for Colton to have for his own once Drew leaves. The first month or so they were great. I took a couple of long rides with friends
and was able to ride to our job sites without having to sit in traffic for
hours. Then even though we were maintaining
them well and not riding them very hard (except for riding wheelies for the
Haitian kids when they askJ) the
bikes slowly started to prove my father right once again. First my chain guard just fell off. Then my pipe guard fell off. Then the electric starter stopped
working. Then my kick starter
broke. It seemed like every time I ride
it I am waiting to see what is going to break next. Unfortunately, I have lost confidence in
it. I am not confident to go on long
rides anymore. I guess I could get mad
at the salesmen, the dealership, or the web-site that made this bike look so
appealing while not disclosing the real truth about their product. The truth is that you are getting what you
are paying for. It looks nice, the price
is right, but it’s probably not going to last very long, especially if you ride
it hard and need it to go off the smoothness of the paved road. And if they
were going to be really honest, they would tell you that is part of the
business concept, make it look nice from the outside, make it affordable to
customer, and then when it breaks we’ll be able to sell them the parts to fix
what they bought or better yet they’ll be back to buy another one and then
another one and then maybe even another one.
Sukida is banking on me never making the sacrifice of buying a Honda and
they are making millions and trillions on that bet, because there are not too
many Hondas on the streets here in Haiti.
One of the things that I’ve learned is that God
can use my own frustrations to teach me things and challenge me in new and
sometimes painful ways. For some time
now, I have been convicted of how sometimes we as Christians portray the
Gospel. Sometimes it’s almost like we
have to defend God and His ways to get people to “convert” to our faith. I was challenged by this concept of, am I
selling a gospel that is “Made in China”?
Am I trying to sell a cheap version of the gospel to make it more
appealing to people and making it a price that they are willing to spend to
have it, knowing all along that the version that I am selling is not going to
last? Knowing that gospel is not going to stand up to the trials and struggles
that people are going to face. It may be
a gospel that survives the smooth roads, but what happens to that gospel when
the road takes a detour and the road gets bumpy and has ruts and other
obstacles in its path. How is that gospel
I am selling going to hold up off-road?
While, gospel is love, forgiveness, mercy, and
unconditional grace, and Christ doing for us what we can’t do for ourselves by
reconciling us to our creator, it’s also
about taking the blame for our sin to a God that is so Holy that He can’t even
be in the presence of that sin. It’s also
about God’s son coming to this earth to serve and not be served. Where He would accept sinners not reject
them. Where He would challenge the
masses by telling them to put down their stones and examine their own lives
while He provides forgiveness for the convicted and challenges them to change
their ways for God’s ways. It’s about Christ stepping down from His thrown
where He was being worshiped and the angels sang songs of glory to him to being
vulnerable, spat on, whipped, tortured, lied about, questioned, rejected,
laughed at, beaten, and ultimately crucified for you and for me. It’s about us taking up our cross and not
being an enemy of “The Cross”. It’s
about, whether you’re a soccer mom or a mass murderer, coming to an understanding
of your own brokenness and believing that there is no other way than through
the blood of Christ will bring salvation. It’s about loving and serving others not
because you have to check a box but because it’s why you exist. The Gospel is about our lives proving that
it exists. The Gospel is about knowing that
the person that you may despise the most may share a place right next to you in
eternity. It also may be about your
physical circumstances changing for the worse and not the better. It’s about setting your own desires aside and
seeking after His desires. It’s about living
the dream that He has for life and setting yours aside. It’s about playing our part in His story and
not Him being a character in ours. It’s
excepting that God is in control and that He is sickness, healing, earthquakes,
storms, rainbows, poverty, blessings, blindness, sight, death, and life. He is the past, the present, and the future.
He doesn’t need us to defend him and just needs us to trust Him. Trusting to me is having faith in the
unknown. Trusting, without having to
understand.
The problem is that when we don’t share the whole
Gospel, and just tell the parts that are appealing to the audience we are in
front of; we are selling the gospel instead of sharing it. And by selling it we tend not to share the
parts that will truly bring about change.
A Pastor friend of mine once said “How can a god that you can fashion,
be big enough to really help you.” We have a saying here in Haiti that goes, “The
less you know the more you know”. Which
to me means; sometimes wisdom is acquired by accepting what you don’t need to
know.
I guess that’s what I want to share with people
when I talk about the gospel and what it means to follow and seek after God. It is scary though. I have friends that do it week in and week
out. Their churches are not as full as
others. One of them, some weeks may only speak to 20 people, another may have
to cut bulletins from their budget so they can make payroll, one is a director
of a counseling center that counsels and
loves people that most Christians would find despicable. These men may
not be as popular as others but they are some of the bravest Pastors and Christ
followers I know. The truth God speaks
through their words and their lives changes people. I am one of them. They share the gospel, they don’t sell
it. They don’t spend half their time
putting up disclaimers for it. They’ve gained
great wisdom by accepting and trusting the unknown by wrestling, questioning,
and then humbling themselves to it.
Contrary to what some would say, there is nothing
easy about the Gospel. The Gospel is
hard to grasp. And while it is freely
given, it comes with a cost. But while
the cost is great, there is no other way to experience true freedom.
The Gospel isn’t easy but nothing extraordinary
ever is, and the true meaning behind the Gospel is nothing short of
Extraordinary.
-Jeff
