Lindy Davidson

The summer is high season for travel, and being in Florida, we see our fill of vacationers. Just last week there was an RV parked in our neighborhood blocking exactly half the street. Adam and I took the boys to the beach in May, just before the busy season hit; and the church pews are roomier than usual. Many of our friends have taken their “vacations” this summer in some pretty un-vacation-like places. A group of high schoolers from our church went to New Orleans last week to work on Hurricane Katrina clean-up, spending all day in masks and full body suits in 100 plus degree weather. Others were caring for the disabled and working with kids. This week a group of middle schoolers is in Atlanta volunteering. Our friends from Nashville (Harry, Andrea, Mike and Duffy along with others) are in Greece right now leading a conference for missionaries in hopes of refreshing and encouraging them in their work throughout Europe. My friend Katie (same church in N’ville) just got back from a trip to India where she spent most of her time praying for people and having small but important conversations about the gospel. Others from our church (Drew, Tim and Jonathan) are going to Uganda in a few weeks. Then there are others, like my friend Bonnie Lou, who has spent the last decade of her life devoted to the people of Zambia (check out the link to CCM). All of these people give fervently to the mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus to the world, and it thrills my soul that my friends are willing to give of themselves and their time in this way. As a growing and increasingly sedentary pregnant woman, my hands are tied when it comes to going anywhere beyond the grocery store, but I am honored to be a part of the prayer teams for these people, and I am hopeful that one day I will again be able to go and experience the thrill of being used in unexpected and unique ways in the world. For now, I am used here to the furthest extent, and that is both valuable and my calling. A day will come again though when I get to see the blessings of God’s work in far away places and with culturally different people whom I get to call brothers and sisters. God calls us to take His gospel to the world. No place is too close to home and no place is too far away for him to use us.

Since this is a blog, I guess I get to write about whatever is on my mind. Today I was reading Searching for God Knows What and this quote really got my mind going: “In this way, it has felt like one group in the lifeboat, the moral group, is at odds with another group, the immoral group, and the fight is about dominance in a fallen system rather than rescue from a fallen system.”
Miller uses the lifeboat analogy all through the book, and if you aren’t familiar with the lifeboat game, basically it’s a values game where you pretend you are in a lifeboat for 6 people and there are 7 needing to be saved. You have to decide who is valuable and who gets thrown overboard. There’s an old Steve Taylor song about it that is very good.
Anyhow, back to the quote, I felt like Miller eloquently said something I feel in my gut but can’t manage to express very well most of the time. Christians spend much time, energy, and money fighting the wrong war. We’re engaged in battle to dominate a system that is not worth fighting for. And the real war, the one we’re called to fight, gets shelved over the culture war. Christians pour money into political campaigns, yet our own missionaries have trouble collecting their pledged support. It seems like Jesus was not so worried about politics as he was about people. He came to save the world, yet he was content to stop and deal with one needy soul at a time. He didn’t get knotted up over changing the systems of the day because He wasn’t dealing in human systems. He was working out a divine plan (and he still is) that didn’t require men to recognize him and give him props. It allowed for people to push him around and say all kinds of nasty things against him. He made room for the social outcast yet also invited the highest class to come and be with him. I don’t see how that gels with the American political “Christian” agenda.
Do I think that Christians should be invovled in politics? Absolutely. But do I think it should be for the sake of taking over the country’s political system or even moreso, the world? No, that’s not the way of Jesus. I think we should be involved because I think that Christians should be engaged in the work of the Kingdom in all aspects, but not for the sake of self-preservation, we’re already covered on that. It’s not up to us to save Christianity. (I’m certain it’s safe without my Red Rider.) Focusing on and getting angry over the “agenda” steals our attention from the real war for our souls. It was for love that Christ came after us, while we were his enemies remember, so if we’re in a fight that isn’t based on love, we’re in the wrong fight.
When I was in college, Dr. Steve Simpler taught our Christian Doctrine class about the doctrine of sin by drawing a bullseye on the chalkboard. We all tried to throw things at the bullseye to hit it. The term “sin” is an archery term which means “to miss the mark.” Some of us came closer than others, but we were all trying. After we all had a turn, he walked over to the side of the room where there was another chalkboard partially hidden by a door, he closed the door and explained that this was actually the mark we were supposed to be aiming at. We were all aiming at the wrong target. We sinned not only in our inability to hit the target, but in our inability to identify the target. I think that’s what happens a lot in our society now. We exhaust ourselves in the wrong fight, and it’s a brilliant strategy by the one who would love for us to disengage from the real spiritual warfare of loving God and loving our neighbor. Miller says this stuff way better than I do, so you should read Searching for God Knows What. The quote is from the chapter on morality.