Feb 26, 2010
How Our Backgrounds Dramatically Change Our Theology
A few days ago I read a blog post by someone who had some questions about the nature of the relief work in Haiti. This person asked whether we really are saving these people for a better life, or are we going to save them and then abandon them to die in some other way. And in light of the odds of the survival of some even with our relief work, should we even bother?
That, at least, is my interpretation of what this blogger had to say.
I’m sure you’re feeling a bit of the tension here. Some may wonder, how could someone say that? I was thinking of entering a comment, but as I read the thread of comments that followed the post, something that I didn’t feel l should add to, I learned something very significant about this blogger.
This person has not only struggled with addiction but also with suicide. There have been occasions on which this person thought it would be much better to die. Death didn’t seem all that haunting or terrible. In fact, death is an escape from the pain of this world.
It would have been easy to write this person off as lacking compassion or worse based on the post’s leading question, but once we answer the question, “Why would you say that?” we understand that this question is rising out of some very deep, embedded thinking from this person’s past.
I shudder at both the nature of such thinking and at the possibility that I could have very well begun to challenge this person without a proper understanding of where such thinking is coming from. I could have written off the experiences and challenges that this blogger faces without properly understanding and addressing them.
So I have two thoughts:
For starters, about the relief work, I think we have a lot to learn from the book When Helping Hurts. Relief work isn’t enough. We need to empower people by coming alongside them and helping them invest in their own development. So our work in Haiti isn’t simply a matter of stopping the bleeding and then abandoning. It should be a sustained approach. That’s my new criteria when searching for a worthy organization for my donations.
Secondly, I don’t want to offer pat answers to one person’s deepest pains, but so far as I can tell from scripture, God desires that we experience abundant life now—even the word “eternal” life in the Gospel of John carries this sense of abundant or overflowing in the original Greek. Jesus preached the coming of the Kingdom today, and so living in the Kingdom today is how we begin to move away from the pain of this world.
I can’t speak to this person’s situation exactly, so I don’t want to generalize, but the Good News of Jesus is that sin and death have been defeated and his Resurrection gives us new life. That means we go forward into our world of uncertainty, natural disasters, violence, and greed asking God to bring his Kingdom’s life to both ourselves and to others.
It’s not easy, and I don’t want to trivialize anyone’s experiences. However, speaking in the most general of terms, God desires that we will start living in the freedom of his Kingdom today. I pray that we can leave behind everything that hinders in order to enter that place of rest rather than any other poor substitute. Even if it’s a long, difficult road to freedom, I pray that we will get there.
That is pretty interesting, Ed. This is a hot, personal topic for me.
I used to think that my past was so complicated and convoluted, it would take me a lifetime of healing to experience the freedom I knew in my theology.
To make it simple and short, this does not have to be true. And I’ve personally experienced this in my own life.
Our past is one factor in how we view and respond in our today. A bigger factor is whether we can face the truth of what we tell ourselves about the past and it’s affect on us.
Thank you Ed for writing this. It resonates so much with what I believe. I too have wrestled with thoughts of suicide, and in my walk as a Christian have found that those who at least try to understand where I am coming from have been the most help, whereas those who just spout ‘facts’ and ‘verses’ at me have hindered not helped.
I love your writings and it is so refreshing to find a Christian who can do ‘sound’ theology (whatever that is…) and show compassion.
Thanks Bonnie and Jo. I’m glad this hits on important aspects of theology for you.
Bonnie, I appreciated your closing remark, “A bigger factor is whether we can face the truth of what we tell ourselves about the past and it’s affect on us.” Once we identify what is from us and what it is that God is telling us, I think there is a chance to move in sync with what God is telling us and letting him reform our beliefs and our lives.
It’s interesting that you bring up the book “When Helping Hurts.” The Missions, Mercy and Justice committee at my church has just started reading that together, and has encouraged our entire church community to pick it up. I haven’t started it yet, but clearly I’m supposed to.
Also, I think it’s so important that people like you continue to drive home this idea of bringing God’s kingdom to earth. For some reason, that was one of my biggest misconceptions about God and heaven growing up. It wasn’t until relatively recently (in my 30s) that I heard someone talk about “on earth, as it is in heaven,” and what that meant for us, God’s people. It has completely transformed my understanding of the work there is to do, and the hope we can have in that work.
Keep preaching it, friend!
Kristin, I’m glad the Kingdom of God stuff is bringing the kind of excitement and liberty that you describe. That understanding of the Gospel makes Jesus all the more relevant for our lives. I’m grateful for NT for driving all of this home in Jesus and the Victory of God and in What Saint Paul Really Said.
As to When Helping Hurts… It’s a bit of a dull read at times, and a bit… reformed in outlook. However, it’s really helpful. It’s my gold standard in evaluating the effectiveness of a relief group. I can put you in touch with the publicist at the publisher if you’d like a copy to review on your blog.