Biblical proportions

I remember once, in my "former life" as a cabinetmaker, receiving a call from a very, very, very wealthy woman who wanted to come by my shop and get my advice on the design of something she and her husband wanted to build.  Having done a great deal of work for her I knew there was no guessing what on earth she was thinking about building!   Over the years her eccentricity had pushed my skill and creative imagination to the limits ... not to mention my patience.  

I was in the office when she arrived, and when I walked out she had just heaved a massive roll of blueprints onto my workbench.   As she unrolled this colossal tree stump size roll of blueprints, I'm sure I audibly gasped, as I began to realize the size of this house they were thinking of building. I'm not even sure you can reasonably call it a house .... it was nearly 40,000 square feet!  

Regaining my mental footing I asked her what she needed my help with.  She told me that she was having trouble determining the size of the laundry room (as if she was ever going to do laundry!) and wanted my opinion on whether what was drawn was big enough.  What was drawn was nearly 20' x 40' - which staggers the imagination for a laundry room for a family of four!  But she couldn't visualize it.  Her problem was that she couldn't appreciate the scale of the blueprints. Everything just seemed so small to her - which may be why the house ended up nearly 40,000 sq. ft.!

One of the biggest problems we have as evangelical Christians is not so much error (though I've noticed a few popular writers "emerging" who seem to enjoy dabbling with it), but rather scale or dimension.  Like the woman who visited my shop, it appears that for many of us it is extremely difficult to get our minds around Biblical proportions.  Not only is there the problem that Piper likes to describe as viewing life and all things religious through the wrong end of the telescope,  but we also tend to view small things through a cultural microscope so that the wrong things, or at least very small and inconsequential things tend to become big in our eyes. As a result, we not only tend to lose sight of the greatness of God, but also the dignity and nobility of man made in the image of God ... and as important and urgent as the former is, it is the latter that concerns me most here in Africa.  ... But I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow to expand on it.  It's been a long day.

  

 

FYI

Someone recently loaned me a book entitled, "Men Without God, A study of the impact of the Christian message in the north of Uganda".  It was written in 1966 by J. K. Russell who appears to have been the Anglican Bishop in Northern Uganda during that period.   It has been for me an interesting read.  But unless you live here and have some of the quirky interests I have, I'm not making a recommendation.  Nevertheless, in it I came across the following testimony from an Acholi and thought you might like to know the source of all your misery: "At the time when God made man, he gave him all the fruits of the earth to eat: millet both for white men and black men.  Afterwards they separated from one another, and the white men refused to eat the black men's food.  Instead they began to eat the fruit of which God said "You shall not eat".  For this reason, God became angry and said "Because you have eaten of this fruit which I forbade you, you shall die."  And so death came into the world because of the white men"  ... thought you would want to know.

Blogging, neighbors, and the sovereignty of God

I am simply mystified at how so many bloggers manage to sit and write so often and so much ... with what appears to be an astounding breadth and depth of knowledge of all current events ... and even what their fellow bloggers are saying.  They obviously don't live in Africa.  If I am fortunate enough to have both the electricity and the internet working at the same time, I will surely have someone come by and want to "sit" with me a while.  

Whereas time management is a highly developed art form in the West, and "time" an honored and respected form of "property rights", the management of expectations seems to be the corresponding art form here in Africa. Precious little goes as "expected". But, inasmuch as we in the West "manage" our time and are genuinely more productive and prosperous for it, the typical African "has" time for their neighbor ... and I have many neighbors.  

So there it is, my excuse for not posting anything for many months.  I started with grand intentions and a firm resolve not to go the way of so many blogs that end after only a few posts, but I've just had a hard time getting in sync with the rhythm of life here.

But let me return to the issue of managing time.  It is interesting that for all of our time saving devices that help us slice and dice up our days we never realize how small we become in the process.  "Time" is us.  It is actually we ourselves that are sliced and diced.  We segment our lives in highly disciplined ways and give only the "time" (portion of ourselves) necessary for the task.  Out of courtesy we get "straight to business" so as not to waste each other's "time".  We go through life with packed schedules "meeting" people all day long ... but not really.  We are really like ships passing in the night. Suddenly our colleague ends up in divorce court and we say, "Wow, I never knew they were having any problems.  ... Honey, what is his wife's name again?"

Not so in Africa!  People and relationships between people are much more important here than almost everything else.  This is why extensive daily greetings are so important.  It has taken me a while to appreciate this.  I'm sure I have appeared as a barbarian to my friends and neighbors as I have said "hello" and gone straight to the point of my visit ... or worse, as I've asked them to get to the point of their visit. 

Throughout this part of Africa, there is often quite a ritual of greetings between people -especially upon their first meeting of the day.  As an outsider, this time of greeting appears to be an enjoyable time of sharing. But it also seems, in some way, to continue or extend an existing relationship, even between close relatives.  I'm almost tempted to think that a relationship must be renewed each day by the way they greet one another, even when a good relationship already exists.  It almost seems that a person cannot presume upon the relationship of yesterday to care for the relationship needs of today (relationships are the "social security" system in Africa).  But this is just speculation.  Yet, it is the only reason I can think of to explain why, when I leave town, I receive calls from people just to greet Susan and me.  They greet, inquire of our well being (it is never just me but always Susan and me), and then they hang up.  Even the process of saying "goodbye" is drawn out a bit here.  You never just say goodbye and close the door behind someone.  You accompany a visitor who is leaving for some distance down the road.  Relationships are treated with the utmost honor and respect.

For us, the honeymoon is over.  We are no longer visitors.  We have been here long enough to be expected to behave "normal".  We are expected to embrace the cultural value that people are esteemed far more highly than projects, plans, schedules ... or blogs.  But it is, nonetheless, my sincere hope (and "expectation") to once again resume posting my musings here.  But, in the very likely event of another delay, you can know that I'm not "wasting" time.  I'm cultivating the art of "having" time and "managing" expectations.

 

Shallow slogans

It has often been said (and I've said it myself) that the church in Africa is a mile wide but only an inch deep. I suppose that it would be difficult to argue against this, for in many ways this statement is a fair description. But before we swallow that slogan as the whole truth and draw an unfavorable conclusion, I want to give another perspective on Jesus' "wide and shallow" church in Africa ... and by the way, it would probably be wise to remember that it is His church ... and it is ordinarily good practice to use care when speaking of another man's wife!

Ever seen the Nile river on a map? It's really long. It runs from Lake Victoria in Uganda all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. To help you appreciate the value of this river, Uganda is preparing to build a new dam at the source of the Nile in order to generate electricity. Not too long ago Egypt threatened to send fighter jets into Uganda and blow it up if anything should happen to reduce the flow of water to Egypt. That's pretty serious!

I have now been on both ends of the Nile. As it leaves Lake Victoria and starts its 4000+ mile safari to the sea, it cascades down a set of falls with such amazing force that rafters and kayakers travel from around the world to experience the world class rapids it creates. Having rafted this stretch, I can tell you that there are moments you seriously wonder if you will live through it! But on the other end, in Egypt, the river moves at a much slower and easier pace. When you are there floating along serenely between its wide banks, it is hard to imagine that this life-giving water (note the green in the satellite photo above in contrast to the Sahara Desert through which it passes) finds it source thousands of miles south in a very wide and shallow Lake Victoria.

Lake Victoria is the 2nd largest (and widest) fresh water lake in the world (26,000 sq. miles) spreading itself approximately 150 miles wide. It has over 2000 miles of coastline which has become one of the most densely populated regions on the continent. Its extensive surface area belongs to three nations. But, though it is vast in size, it is the shallowest of the great lakes. So, it too has the dubious honor of being notoriously "wide" and "shallow" ... yet a source of life to so many!

Perhaps width and depth is not the complete and, therefore, true measure of things. Besides, what are we measuring against? Just how "deep" is the church in the West? I really wouldn't underestimate the life giving force of this "mile wide but inch deep" church. In the coming years this continent will most likely have the highest concentration of Christians in the world. If the same Spirit that hovered over the tumultuous waters of the unformed earth (Gen. 1) dwells in the church in Africa, it would be foolish to be hasty in forming a judgment just now. I have a suspicion that at the end of the day, God will look upon it and say, "It is good".