"Made in China"

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