Aylan Kurdi and the Problem of Evil

I don’t know why it took so long. After thousands of people have died at the hands of ISIS, with millions more fleeing for their lives, a short video clip finally brought it home. The image of 2-year-old Aylan Kurdi, lying facedown in the sand, with the surf lapping at his face, hit me like a spear in the chest. All of a sudden everything became more real. I’m sure there have been hundreds more like him, lying facedown in a rubble-filled street, or in their homes, or in their classroom. But they didn’t have the perfectly framed camera shots that I’m sure made newsroom producers salivate. I guess I need good production quality to finally understand, or something.

It frustrates me that I don’t know what to pray for. I mean I know to pray for the families living in refugee camps, and for the people living in constant fear of merciless execution, and for people fleeing across the water, the way Aylan’s family tried to do. But what do I pray for regarding ISIS themselves?

How do you pray for Evil incarnate? Well organized, well funded, wielding an attractive narrative to recruits who don’t know any better?

As a follower of Christ, I feel that I can’t ask God for violent retaliation via military force. Toby Keith’s “Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass/It’s the American way” is probably correct; it is the American way, but I don’t think you can make a case that it’s Christian way. Besides, eliminating ISIS through violence won’t actually solve the problem at hand; it’ll just mask it until the next terrorist group comes to power. As David Alpher writes in this excellent article:

“This conflict and others like it around the world are rooted in people, not states. It’s rooted in ideology and religion, in sectarian frictions, in political exclusion and social marginalization, in resources and access. That’s a long list of root causes and conditions that do not respond to force and cannot be bombed out of existence.”

So I suppose the best things to pray for are diplomacy from our world leaders and action from ourselves. Those of us who believe Jesus is Lord can take action through prayer and giving, if nothing else.

Up until the picture of Aylan, I ran away from images and videos of ISIS’s terror. I didn’t want to watch executions on the beach or mass graves of innocent people. But for some reason I just had to sit and bask in the horror of a 2-year-old who drowned fleeing a conflict he couldn’t understand.

I think the best way to honor Aylan and the thousands like him is not to flee to the next available distraction, as we 21^st-century Americans are prone to do. It’s to lament, to mourn for the victims of the terror, and to pray for God’s mercy. And if we have the means, to donate to people helping the survivors. There are thousands of faces out there like Aylan’s, and they need our prayers and our help, too.

As a place to start, I’d suggest looking at Preemptive Love Coalition. They’re a fantastic charity that I think is “doing it right” when it comes to creating lasting change in an area of the world that has only known hostility. Check out their website and look them up on Facebook for updates on their great work.

When Books Talk Back to One Another

Alright, here’s the deal. My church decided (wisely) to participate in Community Bible Experience, so I took a 40-day break from my normal Bible reading schedule to read through the New Testament with my small group. So I’ve read through the entire New Testament, but want to read through it again and write posts on it when I can. Add that to wedding planning and I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to read or write.

That said, I’ve made it through the wisdom books of the First Testament.

I really enjoyed reading through these books and seeing an ancient genre of literature that doesn’t really exist today. Most of the First Testament is written as narrative, telling the story of God’s redemptive work through an ancient nation very different from our own. Reading through the Writings books (wisdom literature, Psalms, Song of Songs, etc.) really adds color to the story and provides a glimpse into the cultures these events took place in.

Wisdom literature, I’ve learned, is an observation about how the world generally works. If you do X, you can expect for Y to happen. Using the principles in wisdom literature, one can craft a worldview and a set of guidelines so that they can move through life in a wise and discerning manner.

So what happens when books in the Bible disagree with one another?

Proverbs says, essentially, “If you follow these principles, things will generally go well for you.” Ecclesiastes and Job, however, say, “Yeah we tried that, and things didn’t go well. The world is not the way you say it is.”

So if this is all the Word of God, how do we handle books talking back to one another, or even instances where books seem to contradict themselves? Are some books right, and others are wrong? Are they all wrong?

First off, I think the notion of B.I.B.L.E. = Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth needs to die a quick death. There is so much wrong with that phrase that I don’t have time to even get into.

Second, I think we need to get rid of the idea that the Bible is a compilation of timeless truth nuggets that can be plucked out arbitrarily, because it elevates some portions of Scripture while ignoring others. Everyone loves the “Love the Lord your God” passage in Deuteronomy…but the instructions about burning down a village and killing everybody in it? Not so much. All of Scripture works together, and every individual piece plays a part in the overall story. It’s only when we understand the whole story that we can begin to make good sense of the smaller bits.

So where does that leave us with the wisdom books? I think that all of these books are true when put in conversation with one another. Living a wise and righteous life can certainly lead to security and well-being. But there is injustice in this world, and as we all know things don’t often work out as they should. Oftentimes the righteous suffer greatly. And sometimes we need to recognize the folly of chasing after satisfaction from things “under the sun.”

In my opinion the best way to gain wisdom is by seeking it. By thinking hard and wrestling through these books, then looking at them through the lens of Jesus’ victory on the cross, we can begin to carve out lifestyles that honor God and carry the gospel forward. We can start to understand how life under the sun translates to life everlasting.

Finally, these books should drive us to worship a God who is the source of perfect justice. Perfect justice that looks like his spotless, innocent, righteous Son hanging on a cross in place of his wayward children. Perfect justice that looks a lot like love, grace, mercy, and peace.

A Look Back at 2014, A Look Ahead to 2015

As 2014 closes out and 2015 begins, I’d be remiss if I didn’t join the masses and get retrospective on the year that was and prospective on the year to come. It’s a healthy thing to do. Taking a step back from daily tasks and to-do lists helps me take a breath and see all that God’s been doing in the world. It also helps me anticipate a new year of, well, God doing stuff.

In my personal life, it’s been a wonderful year. God answered the prayers sent up during my 9-month unemployment with a fantastic job that has led to the most spiritually formative year of my life. I got engaged to an amazing woman that I seem to admire more and more each day. She brings joy, adventure, and peace into my life in so many ways, and I’m so excited to spend the rest of my years getting to know her better.

On top of all that, I’ve read 17 books, and am working on numbers 18 and 19. I took up nature photography, climbed a 14,000-foot mountain, and switched my skis out for a snowboard. I got to travel to Nashville and Pasadena, two cities I’d never been to before. I spent 30 days in August eating nothing but meat, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. On Christmas Day, Lacey and I adopted a 90-pound dog.

Meet Dixon. If you couldn’t tell, his head is at my hip

My 2014 was quite a ride.

On a larger scale, 2014 was tough to watch. Ebola outbreaks in Africa, riots in Ukraine, the disappearance of one Malaysia Airlines plane and another being shot down, international tensions with Russia. More violent conflict between Israel and Palestine, civil unrest in Ferguson and New York, the Taliban killing over 100 schoolchildren, and ISIS reigning untold terror across the Middle East. And those are just the big news stories.

To be sure, 2014 was a year to pray for Jesus’ coming. It was a year to ask what he’s doing in the world, to ache and grieve for the twisted hold evil seems to have on his wonderful creation. How could things go so wrong? And what can we as the Church, as agents of peace and joy, do about it?

 We need to stay on mission.

We need to remember that the battle against evil has already been won. Even though it seems to have a grip on the world, it has no chance for an eternal victory. Jesus has already defeated death, and he’s actively working behind the scenes to create good in the world.  Still, we prayerfully anticipate his second coming to establish his kingdom in its fullness.

 But that doesn’t mean we should sit on our hands.

My pastor preached a great sermon last week exploring the differences between the Gospels’ announcements of Jesus’ coming and his instruction before leaving. The accounts of Jesus’ birth make allusions to a royal birth, with the sky opening and angels singing in celebration. The long-awaited Messiah, Savior, Lord has been born. The King is here.

Rome, however, did not fall. There was no military victory, and Jesus did not take a seat on his throne in Jerusalem. Israel was not restored to their rightful place as the Chosen Nation.  This was not what the Jews expected.

Instead, Jesus told his disciples in the Gospel of John, “it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you…But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.”

At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, he gives the disciples instructions to, “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So the great King proclaimed at the beginning of the Gospels is leaving his final instructions with a bunch of common folk? Fishermen and tax collectors? He’s trusting a bunch of Regular Joes with a task of cosmic significance?

Basically what it boils down to is this: Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to continue the mission he started. He’s coming to establish his kingdom in its fullness, but he’s given us the task of preparing the way.

We prepare the way by proclaiming the Gospel. We prepare the way by loving God and loving others. We prepare the way by being agents of peace. We prepare the way by caring for the poor. By advocating for justice. By forgiving as we’ve been forgiven. By living joyfully no matter our circumstances, because our source of joy is outside of circumstance.

2015 will have its own set of difficulties, whether in our personal lives or in the world news briefs. Unless Jesus returns, there will be more shootings, more bombings, more injustice, more crime. It’s our job to stay on mission. Jesus is with us through his Spirit, and we’ve been tasked with being the light to the nations that Old Testament Israel couldn’t be.

My hope for this year is that as a Church we’re more disciplined with staying on mission through the mundane. I hope we form the habit of doing the little things that God wants us to do, and if we feel called, I hope we have the courage to do the big things he wants us to do.

So here’s to 2015. Let’s lay some Kingdom Bricks.