September 23, 2008

Thoughts on returning to the "other-world"


I am utterly convinced now that the supposed airplane we disembarked on from Kabul was in actuality a time machine. It's as if we stumbled through some black-hole or dimensional field into another world, one utterly disconnected from the other. From "bible-times" to the Jetsons in a few short flights. From simplicity to chaos and complication. Yet BOTH worlds seem ever broken.

One is simply trying to survive in the most real sense of the word. Undeveloped, uneducated, war-torn & starving to death, the inhabitance are totally aware of the "other-world" and dream of it's beauty and vibrance. They even have portholes that allow them to lust for a life without gunfire, famine, or the lack of opportunity.

The other world however (this world-my old world) is lonely and lost. The inhabitance gouge themselves searching for happiness and belonging. Yet continually find themselves wanting and disconnected. They are uneasy, untrusting, lifeless and tense. They fear their worlds collapse and see its survival, in the most exaggerated sense of the word, as more important than their very own. They are totally unaware of the "other-world" and their "life" styles express this in grandeur.

It is very simple from this observation to render one world the Oppressor and the other the Oppressed. It is simpler still to draw a deep sympathy for said oppressed world. Yet, and I find this strangely peculiar, even simpler to draw a deep sympathy (as an oppressor) and do absolutely nothing to bring forth justice.

But here in lay the radical truth both Oppressor & Oppressed must be set free! The one world can not simply liberate the other. With this mentality we simply produce more violence and globalize the ever looming Empire of Loneliness. Visa versa, the simpler world has not the means to separate its beauty from its lust to breath life and reason into the other. It also has little voice to amplify and no receptive ears await unoccupied from the expansive world they might harken to. So to this I say, with every inch of me, we need a NEW WORLD.

One that will feed the hungry and comfort the lonely hearted. One offering GRACE to the ignorant and MERCY to the hopeless. For just as charity without JUSTICE is incomplete, so justice without FORGIVENESS is incomplete. We need a new salvation - a new Jerusalem. LET THE NEW WORLD COME...and it has..

It is here among us now, just waiting to be realized. In truth, it was for THIS very reason that Christ came; to establish this new world upon the earth herself. This world, HIS WORLD, is NOT for some distant cloud. It is for today that salvation sings, "equality now, liberation now, freedom now, and justice today."

So for those of us who have begun to abandon the old worlds a breath of life from God Himself is pushing us onward. We have new eyes to see, new ears to hear, and new hearts to give away. We are being restored to the intended design, echoing of Eden wherever we go. For us, there is no turning back...only the Kingdom. And as we grow we begin to join in salvation's song, "let all come...oppressor and oppressed...a NEW WORLD awaits."

love.