This video by Vancouver band Spirit of the West breaks my heart, yet somehow the voices of the orphan children and their faces give me hope. Watch it. You’ll love the song, I am sure. Buy the song on iTunes – all proceeds are going to Bulembu International.
…for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clotheYou? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ – Matthew 25:35-40
The season of Advent is upon us and we at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church are marking the season with a series of sermons on the topic of “The Least of These.” Perfectly timed for me, I’d say. Thanks Pastor Terry!
As I begin to share with others about my plans to join the mission team with Far Corners Ministries, I find myself explaining the why. There are so many passages in the Bible I can point to as a reason for going abroad to serve and assist others, but this one really resonates with me. Our Christian brothers and sisters in India, and their leaders in particular, are among the least of these. Those serving the church are typically very poor; some are hungry and thirsty. They may lack the necessaries of life – like clothing or healthcare. Their children are often going without education.
Far Corners Ministry is focused on delivering mercy to those in need, as well as providing permanent church buildings and training in the foundations of Christian faith. This ministry feeds both the souls and the bodies of those it serves.
Why am I going to India? Because I have been called to go. Based on this passage alone, it couldn’t be more clear to me that I must go.
And as I am preparing my heart for this journey, I am also looking ahead to my return and seriously considering how I will follow this call to serve the least of these here in my home community. Because the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick and lonely, the naked are here among us. I know there’s really no need to travel halfway across the world to find or serve them.
As the Christmas season approaches, the pace of my life seems to accelerate rapidly. There are invitations requiring RSVPs, cards to address and send, gifts to purchase, babysitters to book, lights to hang, a tree to cut & decorate and so much more! With so much to do, I realize it’s time to make a few lists – so that the details will all be attended to and nothing of import will be forgotten.
Adding to the busyness of this season, is the fact that preparations are also gearing up for the mission to West Bengal. Fortunately, our team leader, Kevin Klassen, has seen fit to make a list for the team. It’s just a single page so far but I fear it will grow much larger. And already I find it intimidating as it includes such items as:
Checking off any of these checklist items of course requires that multiple sub-tasks are completed first. So I am definitely focused on the lists at this point.
This is making me think about how much work it must be for Santa to go thru all his lists (and check them twice) each Christmas season. Anyone know where I can find a couple of elves to help me out with my lists?
I start each morning with an emailed reading from Father Richard Rohr, of the Centre for Action and Contemplation (don’t you love that name!) The themes change from week to week but I find that the meditations nearly always focus on something I am ruminating about; thoughr perhaps, it is the meditations that are stirring up my thoughts.
Through this year, the theme I have identified with most is that of entering the second half of life (no coincidence I am sure, given my age) and the ongoing process of growing and maturing that comes with this part of life.
An excerpt from the July 25, 2011 email is below, as it so perfectly describes this process. I think it will be obvious to you why it fits here:
Usually, without growth being forced on us, few of us go willingly on the spiritual journey. Why would we? The rug has to be pulled out from beneath our game, so we redefine what balance really is. We eventually get a feel for true balance when we fall and rise a number of times. More than anything else, this falling/rising cycle is what moves us into the second half of our own lives…. There is a “necessary suffering” to human life, and if we avoid its cycles we remain immature forever. It can take the form of failed relationships, facing our own shadow self, conflicts and contradictions, disappointments, moral lapses, depression in any number of forms. All of these have the potential to edge us forward in life, or dig in our heels even deeper, producing narcissistic and adolescent responses that everybody can see except ourselves. We either “fall upward,” as I say in my last book, or we just keep falling. – by Richard Rohr.
I truly hope that the process of preparing for and going to India will edge me forward in life, helping me to gain the balance I am seeking. I expect there will be at least a few falls as I proceed down this path, but I pray I will have the maturity to use these to fall upward, toward wholeness.
“You see, we cannot draw lines and compartments and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.’ He paused, considering what he had just said. ‘Yes’, he repeated. ‘In the end, it’s all a question of balance.”
These words written by Rohinton Mistry struck a chord with me when I first read them more than ten years ago. What I didn’t know at that time was that in the years to follow, my life would take me down the road from hope to despair and back again, and that whether I could find a balance between these two extremes would determine the rest of my life. But that is another story…
When I first read it, I thought A Fine Balance was the best thing I had ever read; and even today, it remains among my favourite reads ever. When I read this story about the poorest of the poor, I fell in love with their India. This was a love that sprouted earlier in my life reading the British Empire stories of EM Forster, and others and that has since been fed with more works of fiction by Rohinton Mistry, Kiran Desai, Yann Martel, Shilpi Somaya Gowda and many others.
And now I find myself planning to travel to India next March. I couldn’t be more thrilled. And scared.
I am going to India in search of a different kind of balance than I have sought before. This time I am seeking a more spiritual kind of balance that will help me to live contented with myself and my circumstances, balancing the priorities, goals and obligations of the external life with the need I feel to focus more energy on the priorities of the spirit, allowing time for contemplation, rest and worship.
Looking for a Fine Balance 