Being in a Chaotic World

Interesting opinions piece in the N.Y. Times recently. 

Scot McKnight has a brilliant little piece on "Impostor Syndrome"

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I was in a conversation with good friends recently about the power of knowing the stories of those around us. Kara started talking about how important genograms (gee-know-grams or gen-o-grams depending upon whether you say tu-mate-o or ta-mawt-o) have been in our Rochester Church life group.

1. Knowing someone's story (where they come from, their values, hurts, dreams, and hang-ups) allows you to more easily extend grace to each other. 

2. Knowing someone's story gives you the tools and language to speak into their life when the time comes. Some people need a swift kick while others need a pastoral touch. Figuring out who needs what is one of the challenges of deep spiritual friendship. 

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The previous would've helped a Christian group I recently spent time with. On the SW side of Detroit, you'll find the largest Arab population in the world (outside the Middle East of course). Mostly Muslim (not all Arabs are Muslim . . . some are Chaldean Christian) many immigrants from Yemen, Iran, and Iraq call this rough place home. There's a remarkable Christian outreach ministry to the poor here in SW Detroit. 

Along with several students at RC, I spent the bulk of Wednesday at two different mosque's. Say what you will about Islam (and there's a lot to say, God knows they have as many challenges if not more than Christianity right now) . . . we're still talking about people. The Christian group we were with tried to convince us to debate the imam's, a sort of no-holds-bar-death-debate. Most of our students declined saying, "We'd rather attempt to truly understand Islam before we critique it." Students from another university were ripe for the debate. They launched into a contrived (and logically shallow) war of words with a local imam who was clearly too much (intellectually speaking).

I'm not interested in saying that Muslims and Christians are the same. This simply isn't true. There is much of which we disagree. However, our differences must never allow us to avoid the hard work of having authentic dialog that is more than simply political posturing and religious rant. I'm fond of the Jesus Story in which he demonstrates the ways in which Jews and Samaritans (two religions at odds with each other, both prone to violence and terrorist activity) have to continue to see each other as people . . . not principles or intellectual problems to be solved. When I listen to people rant about Islam for instance, I usually follow with a simple statement, "You might be right about what you just said. But let me ask you this. How many Muslims do you know by name?"--BTW, the same question I ask when someone demeans the homeless, etc. 

Besides, if you are going to be the kind of Christian who might influence Muslims to consider Christ as God-in-the-flesh (what Christians call evangelism ) . . . that will likely take place because they've encountered an unmistakable and unshakable confidence in who God is calling me to be, the way in which I live that out. Some say this is naive. Some say this is not logical. 

It's called the Jesus Way. It's called the way of Incarnation. Paul said it best. "While we were still God's enemies, God died for us." That fundamentally changes the way in which we engage our alleged/legit enemies. 

Besides, what's harder: Hiding behind passionate arguments or taking the time to truly know someone, to hear their story, to understand what makes them them?