There have been two themes that have
come up quite a bit in prayer, meditation, and action these last
couple of weeks. One of them is to focus less on stopping the
darkness in the world from advancing and more on taking part in the
light of the world advancing (those aren't always mutually exclusive,
but I'll explain that more later), and the other has been to return
to my ministry roots and do the things that, deep down, I know are
important. Everything else just has to fall in line from there.
The idea of focusing on advancing the
light isn't new; Jesus talked about how the Pharisees were very
careful to do the tiniest parts of the letter of the law, but they
failed to honor parts of the spirit of the law—justice, mercy, and
faithfulness. (To be clear, he said they should do both—but he
noted the part they failed was the 'advancing the light' or loving
portion). During the parable of the sheep and the goats, people are
separated not by what sins they committed, but by whether or not they
went out of their way to love others (advancing the light). Jesus
told his disciples that the gates of Hell would not overcome
the church; a pastor friend of mine mentions (accurately) that gates
don't generally go out and attack people. He feels that Jesus was
implying that the church should be going out and storming the gates
of Hell on earth (also advancing the light).
I find this same idea is visibly clear
in Aikido. If someone grabs a person and tries to hold them in place
(say two hands grabbing one hand), people often respond by trying to
rip and pull and fight that grabbed hand free. This is trying to
stop the advance of the attacker/the attacker's goal rather than
focusing on the freedom of movement that the person being attacked
has. If they calm down they realize they are just held by one
hand—they can punch with the other, kick, move their entire
bodies—all that's held is one hand. However, people tend to
frequently react in quick panic and fight where the other person is
stronger rather than advancing their own free movement (which may
even allow them to get free later).
In actual ministry applications, I find
people often connect to our ministry when things have gone beyond the
ability of the other ministries in town to help with. Many of the
people coming to us are homeless, have untreated mental illness, or
are dealing with varying complex problems. As we work with them, we
try to help them free themselves from their problems; however, some
of them have problems that they are unlikely to ever be free from if
they continue to exist in their current state. These situations are
much like being grabbed (as mentioned above) and focusing on trying
to rip the hand free. It's not wrong for us to help them with
direct, tangible needs—but often that is simply trying to rip their
hands free from an attack rather than helping them advance in more
important root issues that may seem unrelated to the direct problem.
How this plays out is complex and varied per every
individual/situation that we work with.
This principle is also something that I
can directly apply in my own life. While it is sometimes necessary
to 'rip the hand free' and take on problems directly, it's often
actually best to grow and develop overall and focus on other things.
Eventually I become a person for whom said issue is no longer an
issue for.
Regarding the idea of doing what's
important first—when I started doing in-state missionary work, I
would only do small odd jobs that didn't conflict with ministry. If
they did conflict, I turned them down. Now, over time, what I do has
become more complex and involves many moving parts for multiple
entities. It also takes a lot of time. To handle the minutia of
keeping everything running can be a full-time job itself; this often
leaves important things—things that might involve 'attacking the
gates of Hell' on back burner while I handle the more
imminent/immediate things (or work with the imminent, loudly
requesting people). Putting it a different way—it's tough to make
time to go out and meet/pursue people who I've interacted with that I
feel led to interact with more when I can barely maintain all that's
already rolling. That's not to say the things currently rolling
aren't good or aren't 'serving the Kingdom'. To the contrary—some
of the most time-intensive things I do right now involve helping
people in bad situations (as mentioned above). However, helping the
ones who constantly come in our door needing help (who may never get
out of their situations) at the expense of pursuing new relationships
that I feel led to pursue is not the right course.
A friend used a fun analogy in a
discussion related to this topic—she gave the example of having two
secretaries: one is stellar and is performing beyond all
expectations. The other is performing adequately for a secretary.
If you have the money to hire an assistant, which secretary do you
hire an assistant for? With my current perspective of doing what's
important, I answered 'the stellar one'. She said most people answer
the normal one—since that secretary needs more help. The truth is,
hiring an assistant for one who's already super capable maximizes
their efficient use of the assistant and further increases their
exponential productivity—whereas hiring an assistant for the normal
one may help them, but it is ultimately less efficient. This is a
similar idea—do I spend hours upon hours meeting with people who
will be back in my space in a month with the same problems, or do I
go out and pursue that fellow who came into the Gamers Guild
fleetingly, but whom I had a really deep and meaningful conversation
with? The answer, I now feel, is the latter. (It's not that I turn
the others away, but I'm changing my focus and my time utilization to
the important people and situations that often get put on back burner
instead of the loud people and urgent-seeming things).
These two themes that have been popping
up for me (advancing the light and doing what I deep down feel is
important) are directly related in my life. Handling the constantly
coming-in things instead of going out and advancing is much like
'stopping the darkness' instead of 'advancing the light'. While
'stopping the darkness' is still something believers are called to do
(Jesus said to give to those who ask and gave multiple examples of
helping those in need), we are also called to boldly go forth and
announce and advance the Kingdom of light—not just reacting but
acting in a forward-moving way. I think that this is an incredibly
important part of the work that we are to do as believers, and I, for
one, am excited to see where all it will lead in the coming months.
As far as prayer requests—feel free
to pray for several challenging situations that I am in when it comes
to working with others; a few of the circumstances are extraordinary
and cannot be remedied without God's intervention, from what I can
see. I'd also request prayer for clarity when it comes to how to
move ahead with a community volunteerism project and potential
buildings for our ministry. As far as potential volunteer
opportunities—if you are in the area and want to do something,
please contact me. We have needs for labor from simple things like
cleaning and organizing to complex things like talking with lonely
people who deal with mental illness or other life challenges. The
opportunities for the Kingdom to advance are numerous—please just
pray and ask Jesus, the head of the body of believers, where your
particular role in that advancement is. If it's in something you're
already doing, keep it up! If it's with us or near us—let us know;
either way, if you are listening and following Him, I'm sure you'll
end up where you need to be. Thanks again for reading this update,
for your prayers, and/or for your financial support!
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