Keeping Focused on Christ When Our World Falls Apart

 

Unworthy Republic was written by Claudio Saunt, a professor of American History at the University of Georgia. It is about the government Indian Removal of 1820s through 1840s. Saunt addresses Georgia and that state's advocacy and execution of the policy, but also discusses in depth Indian 

Removal in Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, as well as the arduous journeys experienced by the various tribes as they moved (or more often were moved) to new lands in Oklahoma and Kansas. Saunt introduces key characters on both sides of the issue and reveals the impact of the policy on each of their lives. Among the main characters, I enjoyed learning more about John Ross of the Cherokee, since I once lived on John Ross Road near Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's an account of broken treaties and includes how and why a state government decided to ignore a Supreme Court verdict. Indian leaders like Osceola and Black Hawk reacted to the policy with aggressive, militant resistance; John Ross used the American legal system to argue the Cherokees' and other tribes' cases. These leaders agreed in resisting orders to abandon properties and possessions to move to another part of the continent. They each encountered opposition within their own tribes from other leaders who believed that the most beneficial course would be to comply.  Dr. Saunt recounts the experiences of those who left their homes as well as those who resisted. The atrocities that Saunt recounts may cause you to reconsider the concept of Manifest Destiny and perhaps reevaluate your list of our nation's best Presidents. 

What do the The Trail of Tears and the U. S.- Seminole War have to do with comforting people? This book is not about Christian discipleship or leadership, but I discerned principles from the accounts recorded in it. First, the Indians who responded to a confusing and terrifying change in American government policy towards them often listened to spiritual leaders as they searched for answers.  Many had converted to Christianity. Their preachers spoke to the crisis. In their letters to the President and other government leaders, Indians appealed to biblical principles, and also to key American historical values derived from the Bible's teaching and set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Second, they responded as a community. Leaders like John Ross led by consensus.  They were not loners; they helped one another (although there were Indians who took advantage of others misfortune).  Although some committed suicide, others survived because friends and family reached out to help them.  Bible uses metaphors like family and body to describe followers of Christ as a collective group. Third, this book reminds us that institutions that we support and hold dear may disappoint or even horrify us at times.  When they do, the human toll can break our hearts and challenge us to rethink our worldview, the principles by which we live our lives. Unworthy Republic introduces flawed heroes and principled villains.  Cherokee Chief John Ross was a slaveowner.  The politicians and bureaucrats who led the Indian Removal included people who kept meticulous records and worried about the welfare of the uprooted Indian families, even if they did not contest the policy itself. Soldiers questioned their commanders when ordered to commit inhumane actions. Even when everyone around us chooses to do evil, each of us can choose to do right.  Even our world falls apart, we can survive.  

I love to study history.  I did not enjoy at all some of what I learned from this book. People for whom cities, counties, corporations, and universities are named are revealed at their worst.  Other leaders disappoint, but then seem to have awakened to the horror of what they had backed.  As I read the book, I noticed disturbing parallels in attitudes between the 1830s and 2020. If we seek to follow Christ, we must govern our actions and attitudes with a disciplined love that keeps promises and seeks the best for others. Life is not easy. Each of us confront moments of ethical challenge in our lives. May we keep focus on Christ and what it means to follow him in such moments.  

When Worlds Fall Apart: Cloud Atlas and 2020

  Justice may seem impossible to achieve.  Friends, employers, or even family members may betray us. The world may seem (and in 2020, it does, doesn't it?)  as if it is imploding because of violence, hurricanes, pandemics, and murder hornets.

Reading the book Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell reminded me that everything I read doesn't have to leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling or even be consistent with my world view to benefit me. When I had finished about half of Cloud Atlas, I was disturbed deeply but aware that I dare not cease reading. Mitchell weaves together six narratives in this novel that spans several millennia (the movie based on the book apparently squeezes it into five hundred years but given the religious evolution, I think the book requires more time to elapse between two of the narratives) linking primary characters in unexpected ways. Observations on what it means to be human and civilized emerge, as well reflection on the probable transience of what we think permanent. Some characters are disgusting, others tragic, and from both sets emerge heroes and antiheroes. I wondered, based on artifacts discovered in the earliest story and treasured family records in the latest, if there might be a circular time twist, but no one else whose review I read seems to have noticed such, so that probably is not so. 

I'm better for having read this book, not because I believe in transmigration of souls or reincarnation (I don't), but because subtle undertones in each narrative suggest resilience of humans against greed and bullying (even at the macro national level).  Concern for the vulnerable and the oppressed emerges in several threads.  The indigenous native, the ethnic minority, the elderly, economic slaves, and religious faithful find advocates when they are threatened or abused.  Abuse of natural resources, violation of cultural artifacts and intellectual property rights are addressed in ways that stress a concern for others who share our environment. Religious leaders and executives of large corporations are among the villains. But despite the fact that powerful evil people lurk in each narrative, hope persists (with one notable exception and even that has a caveat) and someone finds a way to do the right thing, make provision for success, or improbably just survives. The importance of seeking to help others is revealed by a statement near the end of the book, "In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction" (p 508). 

 Groups of people express bigotry towards other groups or individuals and seek to kill them in several threads of this book. Such hatred has existed in history, and endures today. In American history, the relocation of settled, land-owning Native Americans in the 1830s, the treatment of African Americans during and since slavery, and the imprisonment in concentration camps of innocent Japanese-American citizens during WWII are among the horrors that people in power imposed upon more vulnerable populations. Conversations regarding the value of black and immigrant lives, attacks on Sikh, Jewish, and Christian places of worship in America, and harassment of women and physically/mentally challenged people remind us that we still have a ways to go in maturing as people and a society. Injustice does not exist solely in the realm of fiction.

 As I reflected on this book, I thought about the prophet Habakkuk.  His world was falling apart. He called to God for rescue.  God told him that he (God) had set the process in motion to bring about justice and a return to righteousness.  Habakkuk realizes his people's desperate straits, but also his God's power. And he concludes,

"I heard and my heart pounded; my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Thought the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior" (Habakkuk 3:16-18 NIV 2011).

  Injustice and evil abound.  But God is, and because he is, good abounds as well.  Let us remember to choose to do good, and to love others as we love ourselves. Then, whatever befall, we will know that however bad it may be, good may still conquer, even though all may seem lost. Let's choose to keep living, and to help others do the same.

The Way of the Cross for Families

 

Russell Moore writes in his book The Storm Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home with humble self-disclosure from experience in ministry and as a member of family, both physical and spiritual. He mixes both bittersweet and humorous anecdotes with serious reflections on the meaning of life and scripture. Family carries varying shadows and supports for each of us. Moore reveals how burdens of family responsibility may bring blessing and how tragedy may bear the seeds for hope. He has an aversion to baptism that he never really explains, but otherwise I found this book moving and helpful. I recommend it to you.

The theme of the cross reshaping the storm-tossed family struck a chord with me.  The pressures that culture, peers, and extended family exert upon our choices threaten the influence of religious beliefs in our decision-making processes.  The letter of 1 Peter in the New Testament discusses at length how Christians are to follow the example of Jesus, specifically in suffering. Most of us would prefer to avoid suffering, I suspect, but achieving success in furthering significant causes may demand it.  Serving as a soldier exposes one to potential maiming or loss of life.  Military service and sports participation often require placing personal preferences second to what is best for the team.  This too is true for the Christian as member of a family whether that family is his spouse and children or the church.  We submit our desires to the needs of other family members.  Love sometimes requires difficult, seemingly impossible decisions.  When repeated abuse and habitual, unrepentant betrayal mar the home atmosphere, the Christian's choice will be one that benefits the family as a whole. Separation or divorce may be necessary to protect not only personal safety, but to ensure the welfare of children, and to motivate the offender toward reform or seeking healing of what causes the violence or addictive behavior. Patience, commitment (keeping promises), and love prompt the Christian to seek what will be best.  That may not always be easy to discern. One of my children had health problems that other family members sometimes dismissed as minor or even attention-seeking devices.  That child died in his twenties; his health problem had caused lethal damage despite our attempts to seek treatment that would heal him.  

Seek the salvation of your family, but seek to improve their physical and emotional health as well. Pursue a lifestyle that improves health and affirms the value of life. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, and his way is the path to salvation for you and those whom you love. If your family is rocked by conflict, betrayal, or harmful impact from personal choices,  seek help from strong, trustworthy advisors who will affirm your faith in Christ while protecting your safety.  The way of the cross is not easy, but is the way to love.

Just Mercy

 

  Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy recounts his career as a civil rights lawyer.  He reviews several cases as well as some of his personal experiences outside the courtroom, weaving them within an overarching review of one particularly riveting case.  The "just" in the title has to do with justice.  Stevenson writes a compelling narrative that took on added significance for me against the backdrop of 2020's protests of alleged murders of unarmed black men and women by police and white vigilantes.

  This powerful history deserves a careful and complete reading. Some of the wisest and most powerfully redemptive passages are within the last twenty pages of the book. They cannot be appreciated fully, however, without reading what goes before, however painful that may be for whatever reason. I worked for several years as a corrections counselor; a son of mine is a guard at a state prison. I met people who seemed thoroughly evil. Some were prisoners. I met others whose convictions would later be overturned because they were innocent. Those experiences gave me some context for reading this book. People who are victims or vulnerable often need advocates, whether legal ones like Stevenson or people who speak up or intervene when they see injustice. A sobering moment in the book is when a church refrains from supporting a falsely accused member because he has had an imperfect past. Read this book and ask yourself, as I did, how you may be a "stonecatcher."

Taking Time to See God's Love

 As I walked the other day, I passed a bird resting beside a man-made pond.  Reflecting on God's power to console comes easier in such surroundings. At least it does for me.  I encourage you, if you are able, to spend time outside among trees near water observing wildlife and remembering the God that created you and what you see. Thank God for giving you life and surrounding you with this evidence of  his love.  When we mourn the lost of loved ones or chafe because we have lost freedom to travel or associate, our frustration may threaten to drown out reminders of God's grace and provision.

The Value of Black Lives

When police officers have killed unarmed Americans recently, the fact that many of those were black prompted an outcry of "black lives matter."  Others responded, as if saying that "black lives matter" meant that other lives didn't, that "all lives matter."  The point of the first protesters was and is that sometimes it seems as if all lives (and especially black lives) don't matter.  Others countered the outcry by denouncing it since many more die each day as a result of abortion.  Still others have refused to take seriously the concepts of "systemic racism" or "white privilege." Such, it seems, has not been their experience.  Since only God can read hearts and it would be impossible to track every human action or speech directed toward others, an assertion that "more babies are murdered every day than existential racism is practiced" is only a guess. It could also be asserted that the reverse is true. We don't know. Killing babies before birth is barbaric. Tolerating the death of the elderly in nursing homes or the killing of unarmed people by law enforcement officers or the military is equally tragic. Let's advocate the practice of love and justice while refraining from pitting one sin against another in terms of seriousness. Many black lives end before they begin because of abortion. Can you say that you are for abortion and still say that "black lives matter"?"Can you say that you are pro-life and against abortion if you cannot say the words "black lives matter"?