To My Friend

A young man I met on a recent mission trip emailed me with a question about American politics. He is a Chinese National with an advanced degree in science from the University of Florida. At the time, he was volunteering with a Sweedish church group ministering to Syrian refugees confined to camps near Erbil, Kurdistan, an autonomous province in Northern Iraq. Even though our time together was brief, we connected, and he and I had some in-depth conversations about the state of modern Christianity and especially about the United States.

At the conclusion of this post, I will mention his request that I give him some assistance in finding him a place of volunteer service. Please see that request and provide any ideas or support you can.

It may be that during this season of Lent, we could consider giving up our need for comfort and security. To that end, I wrote to him as follows. May you find it useful.

Dear Friend, please forgive my tardy response. Honestly, I have no excuse. But God has convicted me that I need to respond as best I can.

To your first question about our present administration. May I suggest that the administration is not so much a problem as a symptom of a more significant problem. That many of our leaders are as they are may not be a good thing depending on one’s political persuasion, May I suggest that if we don’t like them, the more significant problem is that “We the People” chose them. In my view, this speaks volumes about the selfishness of the American people as a whole.

I am speaking in gross generalities, for there are many in America who value human life and who follow Jesus’ precepts to “love God and love our neighbors.” It may also be that our condoning or tacit acceptance of certain sad scenes that have happened in recent years is an indication that we, ourselves, are afraid.

Frances Schaeffer said that many Christians get in a position of valuing comfort and security more than they value Jesus. To be clear, such upside-down valuing is entirely wrong and contrary to Jesus’ teachings. I suggest that this valuation may be related to our general well-being and wealth. While we have our poor and needy, the general populace is relatively comfortable and secure, certainly as compared to world standards.

There is no sin in comfort or the desire to be safe. However, the obsessive desire for comfort and wealth can be a disease that robs us of our humanity. This disease opens our hearts to allow selfishness to rule out lives to the point that we view life and people through the selfishness lens rather than through the lens of Jesus.

I believe it was a German pastor in the NAZI era who said that all that needs to happen for a society to fall is for “good people” to remain silent, to do nothing. We see where that led.

While I certainly do not compare our present times to those, and no inference of such should be drawn, I do suggest that we are on the wrong course. We may be on a path to isolationism to protect what we have or to which we believe we are entitled.
Unfortunately, that behavior defines who we are much more than anything we say.

In my prayers, I ask God to grant that Americans will see the error in narrow – minded, self-centered thought.

Further, I also pray that the people of God will act like the people of God regardless of who governs. We Christians can still be Christ-like in our devotion and our treatment of the strangers among us, the poor, the down-trodden, the hopeless, the voiceless ones, and especially the lost ones.

We cannot expect the government to be “Christian” for us, no matter who leads. It is given to us, to Christians, to actually and actively follow Jesus in our daily lives. If enough of us do that, we will force our collective national thought to come to a reckoning.

Politics goes through cycles in America. We’ve seen extremes on the left and right only to be corrected back to the center. This particular time of disharmonious discourse will pass. But “that which is perfect” will not come until Jesus, who is “the Perfect,” comes again, and that may be a long time hence.

Advice:

1. Act like a Christian in your conversation. You cannot convince people that they don’t need so-called comfort and security (especially if you are yelling at them.)

2. Pray for God’s will to be done in America and in the world.

3. Live like you believe the He, and you can make a difference.

4. Do what you can for as many people as you can. You are responsible for yourself, not others. Nevertheless, I submit that you ARE your brother’s keeper.

5. Give people the Gospel, not a political point of view. Look to the example first of Christ and second that of the early Apostles. They did not advocate for a political solution to the problems they saw. They acted to show love, most of them giving their lives for the sake of that love.

6. Be prepared to give your life for that Gospel, either literally or figuratively.

7. Lastly, heed the admonition of Paul in Ephesians to cease worrying about things and instead to pray about everything. Remember Paul’s promise that if you do that, God may not fix the situation, but He will give you the “peace that passes all
understanding.”

“HOLY FATHER,” I bring before you, my friend who is distressed about the state of the American nation and our rejection of the stranger, the poor, the prisoner, and the powerless. I share his concerns as do many other Christians whom I know personally and by reputation.

“HOLY FATHER,” I ask that You first change my heart, then turn the hearts of Christians and then the American people. Teach us to look to You and Your true Word, Jesus, for guidance.

“HOLY FATHER,” Help us to be the Church you called us to be and to have the impact on our society that you called us to have. We are few, but You don’t need an army to bring about Your will.

“HOLY FATHER,” we pray for our president, our congress, and our courts that they would act in a manner worthy of You.

“HOLY FATHER,” we would be not Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, progressives or moderates, but rather Christians, “Christ-Followers.” We know that You hold the lives of people in Your hands from the poorest and most down-trodden sexual or economic slave to the high and the most powerful. You can change actions. You can change minds. You can change hearts. We ask you to do that beginning with my friend and with me.

“HOLY FATHER,” thank you for my friend and his concern for people. Give Him peace and a place of service. Strengthen his faith, calm his fears, and set him on the right path that leads to Your Glory.

“In Jesus’ Name, we pray, AMEN.”