The leader of the Novas project wrote this letter as we were leaving our training in Mexico for Africa, it meant a lot to me and really put into words some things that I think about a lot. The second part is my letter in response to what he said in his.
To those of you who will listen,
Looking forward to the next six months can be an ominous experience. Sometimes we live with the fear that we are not exactly in the midst of Gods will. I don’t personally believe that we need six hours of teaching to know Gods will. Now that I think about it even this letter is overkill. Even my interpretation of the commands of Christ might be a distraction, and I might accidentally make them sound more complex than the simple truths that Christ taught us. It reminds me of the words of Soren Kierkegaard;
“The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Yes, it is dreadful to be alone with the New Testament!”
There is a terrible imbalance to the world God created. Look around you! This earth is broken everywhere you look. Everything is broken… You are the balance. You are the Chosen ones to bring in Christ’s Kingdom! You ask your King what needs to be done and His response is so simple. “There is a lot wrong in the world, why don’t you do something about it”. He whispers it in your ear everyday until you find ways and excuses to drown it out. After a while you don’t hear it at all anymore. You fill your life with all sorts of distractions, and eventually your life is less about what your King has commanded and ALL about you.
“There is a lot wrong in the world, why don’t you do something about it”. This command is simple, but it does have a few requirements. Faith that Christ would receive our simple acts of restoration. Hope that Christ would come soon and restore His Kingdom once and for all. Love that is endless and sacrificial. But there is something else. Something that could answer Christ’s prayer that he prayed in the garden; that His kingdom would come. Recklessness! The reckless abandon of any weight that so easily entangle us. The pursuit of money has destroyed more of my friends than all other snares combined. It will numb you to the brokenness around you and the world will tell you that is a good thing. And that is dangerously similar to alcoholism or drug abuse. I know you are sick of me talking about this, and many of you are rolling your eyes at this point, but I beg of you with all that is in me, guard your heart against greed.
“There is a lot wrong in the world, why don’t you do something about it”. God has given us gifts to accomplish this task. This most important gift we suppress most of the time, but it is the gift we must use at every stage of our life. Anger. Anger at injustice. To have a holy rage that people believe the lies that have been spread across the face of this earth. To rage against the powers that would abuse innocent children. To rage against the philosophy of self indulgence, and greed. To rage against a church that has abandoned her King. To rage against the raping of God’s Earth, and the destruction of His creation. To rage against the abandoning of our elderly to be cared for by strangers. To rage against the exchange of money for sex, and money for happiness. To rage against drunkenness of any form. To rage against the lie that all women are not beautiful just the way they are. To rage when obese politicians talk about starving children from their banquet table. To rage when the poor are exploited by high interest loans and credit cards. To rage when war is glorified and peace declared a scandal. To rage when good children have no mother and good mothers have no children. To rage when the cost of one day of war could pay for ten years of clean drinking water. To rage when so many have never heard about our loving King.
“There is a lot wrong in the world, why don’t you do something about it”. If you listen to those words you will not be confused about the future for long. When you ask Him what His will for your future is I doubt you will get the response you want. I am unsure if He really cares if you in Africa or Boston. And I don’t think it matters if you are in ministry or not. Chili’s or Harvard, whatever. “There is a lot wrong in the world, why don’t you do something about it”.
I want you to meditate on this prayer for a few minutes. Then speak it out loud. Think about the orphaned and abused in your locations. Think about your families and friends, and all of the brokenness back home. And then pray this prayer again.
Father in heaven
Your name is holy
Your Kingdom come
Your Will be done!
AMEN
Peace and Love,
Tag Thompson
Dear Tag,
2)I hate avoidable deep poverty
3)I hate Greed and Apathy
In this 6 months I imagine God changing lives forever, men coming to repentance worshipping with some Africans and leaving feeling a little of the weight of darkess and oppression leave the place from the time I first got there.
I expect to get much closer to my team and see them get freed from things I see them struggling with, and as I come home I expect to see God radically changing the way I left things and it makes me excited just to think about it but, I feel like God is going to do just as many changes in my city, community family and friends while I’m gone as he will in me and in Africa.
The only words that keep echoing in my head are “if you send me God, I’ll go. I know you will do bigger things that I can imagine”.
Love John
And a side note on the poverty thing. There is a statistic: the Christians in the American churches only use .01% of their money to reach unreached people. If every person that “says they’re a Christian” were to adopt an orphan there would be no more orphans left in the world. This stirs up a holy rage in me, and is the reason that I am running after God and the reason he led me on this trip to give up 8 months of my life to be here.
John, I’ve just read all 3 of your lastest blogs at once so they are all kinda of running together in my head. So what I say may not necessarily be in response to this particular blog.
John, Once again…WOW!!! How AMAZING to have a peek inside your head, No it’s not your head, it’s truly your HEART! I can’t tell you how much I love you and how incredibily proud I am of you for running after God. For putting your Passion by taking ACTION!!
I woke up to the chime that an email came in and I thought it might be you, as it was 7:30am CT and that is usually about the time you seem to be writing. What a wonderful & powerful thing to wake up to!
John, I can’t even begin to get my head around the things that you write, the thoughts and feelings you have in your heart! I don’t even know where to start with all that you’ve written in all 3 of the blogs you posted. I mean where “I” can start to process and possibily even put just ONE of your thoughts and concepts into action.
I spoke with Gran a few days ago and she had just read your blog for the first time. She said something to the effect that she was totally amazed that you had all those thoughts in your head! Who would have known!
What that sparks in me is such thankfulness to God and I guess guilt and regret too. And yes, I know I “shouldn’t” feel this way. I am SO SO GRATEFUL and BLESSED by the HEALING time you and I had the day and evening before you left.
Once again, I have to tell you how sorry I am for all the wasted time I spent “bitching” at you for so many things! For the Anger & unstability there has been throughout your life!
All the complaining I did about your room being such a wreck! For you not helping me around the house. For my anger at “how dare YOU speak to me like that!” when “I” was the one that taught you how to talk like that because I was screeming and cussing at you long before you started doing it in return! For you not taking your S.A.T. and not getting a job. And blah blah blah blah blah!!!
What A WASTE of our lives!!! NONE of that actually MATTERED!!
My POINT is to say….How incrediably beautiful you are! How in spite of all that we’ve been through, you have such an incredible LOVING AND FORGIVING HEART! So much passion and love for God and for others that it makes my heart overfilled with JOY and PAIN at the same time.
I did speak with Jenessa last night for about 30 minutes. I plan to call her today so MacKenzie can talk to her too.
What a sweet sweet heart she has! She missing you all terribly and I am sure you all feel that way about her was as well!
I LOVE YOU. I am PRAYING for you and EVERYONE with you ALWAYS!!
MOM