Of Refugees and Dilemma's

I'm going to forewarn you that this post has no real conclusion.

Friday night when the world was changing in a hail of gunfire and explosions in Paris, I was putting my luggage on a bus to go on a retreat with the Middle School Ministry at church. Most of that ride was balanced between laughing at horrible puns and worse alibi's coming from the mouths of a bunch of boys trying to play the game Mafia and following BBC on twitter and their app. Saturday morning meant watching as much news as I could during breakfast and checking twitter when I got the chance.

Now, three full days later the United States is in arms as Syrian refugees that were eventually going to find asylum here are being fought tooth and nail against. Herein lies the dilemma of this post and the only actual point I have to make. A point that has no actual conclusion because I've not reached a conclusion on the issue.

I'm no stranger to writing things that on the internet and even among my family could make people angry. Abortion is the usual hot-button issue I wrestle with and I've got quite a bit of family who find it alright, I consider it murder. This post will be no different. In fact it is probably safe to say after seeing my facebook news feed that the majority of my Facebook 'friends' will disagree heavily with what I'm going to say. To be frank I don't actually care. I'm writing this more for my own sanity than anything else. The life of a writer means having a head full of thoughts that have to be wrestled with and taken down. Otherwise I don't function as well as I should because my focus is divided in heavy favor of the issue I'm trying to figure out.

Most of my news feed today has been full of people sharing articles on the states that are pushing back against Refugee safety cities and why it needs to happen, how people are crazy to think that Asylum is a good idea. Most of them I've read, some of them I've ignored in favor of being both ashamed and amused at the comments left on them. I told you this post would have no conclusion and you are about to find out why.

I'm divided on this issue myself. I understand the logic of Syria being a hotbed for ISIS and that they can use the asylum as an easy way to enter the states. That isn't a flawed logic entirely. It could happen. But if you fail to take into account the number of American people who are in favor of ISIS (google it there are plenty of stories where they've been found out) you are overlooking a problem we already have. There are already people who were born here who want to help ISIS. But I also understand the fear of what could happen if they are allowed to come. Why make it easier? Even knowing that there are people foolish enough to support Islamic State never really made the fear creep up like Friday did.

My hometown was attacked 5 months ago to the day in an act of terrorism that shook this state and the rest of America, though not so much our President. Mostly it was used as a debate on guns more than anything else though that is neither here nor there. So I get the fear, I understand how bad things could have been and that such an act could still happen here. Part of me agrees with the stopping of Asylum because of ISIS.

The other part of me though remembers Matthew 25:34-40

 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,  I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

This isn't an easy thing to deal with. How to reconcile a Biblical mandate with the logic of knowing that ISIS isn't stupid enough to not see this as an opportunity is a struggle. Because I understand that this is something we are called to do. These refugees qualify as the least of these. They've run from their homes because of the very people who attacked France and could infiltrate them to hurt us. They need help, their is absolutely no way to look at them and not see that. Because if you can look at them and decide they are someone elses problem you're blinded by the fact that they come from a place they cannot control. Their birthplace is no more a matter under their control than their skin color.

How in the world do you take the mandate to help the least of these and bind it to the logic of terrorism that is so incredibly likely? I haven't figured that out yet. It is very much a dilemma to me right now that I can't figure out.

I can tell you how not to do it though. All these people calling for Islam to stop being practiced in America are doing it wrong. Freedom of Religion is in the constitution. They've got the right to worship as they choose. Is it a religion of peace? No ,from what I can tell Islam is the exact opposite. You want to stop the practice of Islam? Go love your neighbor. You want people to see Christ love, then love them. Yelling for their religion to be illegal isn't love, it is hate and it isn't going to help your cause at all. If anything you are just going to make them that much less likely to see you as 'Christlike'. Treat them as human and maybe God can use you to call them to Himself. Hate them and you are no better than they are. Why do I say that? Because if you are using every opportunity you have around them to tell them how horrible they are it's going to be incredibly hard for you to share the gospel with them. If they die without hearing that gospel and being drawn by it they go to Hell. So in reality you've taken a chance at saving their lives and used it instead to hate. You might not use suicide belts or guns but you've dealt a blow far worse than physical death. You're sending them to Hell and dying physically is nothing compared to that.

I spent the last two Wednesdays teaching our Middle School students at Church on Philippians 1:21.

 "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

One of the biggest points I made is that living like Christ means loving people who hate you. Christ loved people who hated him. He came to die for people who hated him, people like you and I. People like ISIS. People who follow Islam. You and I are not better off than ISIS. There are no good and bad people. There are people who've been made alive in Christ and people who are dead, there is nothing else. Please, don't tell me that you love God but want to kill all Muslims. That isn't how that works. I can name plenty of people who've died going to share the gospel and love people who hate Christ, five of whom I mentioned just this past Wednesday.  They took a risk knowing that it might mean they died but they also knew that these people needed to know the love of Christ. The kind of love that means loving people who hate you no matter the cost. The kind of love that can spur the family of a murdered man to live with his murderers and raise his children among them. (Google End of the Spear. It will give you all the information you need)

You can't be an example of Christ by hating people.

I told you this post would have no conclusion and it doesn't. I'm no closer to aligning either way on the issue than I was when I started writing. I can see points on both sides. Safety is a big issue. Following Christ is a bigger one. When He said the least of these He meant it. But I don't know how to correlate that with the threat of ISIS because I don't know that inviting them in to slaughter us is altogether the Christian thing to do either. We can't share the gospel if we are dead and don't get the chance to speak about Christ. All I know is hate isn't the right answer and that for now is what I'm sticking with. 

Another Orphan Sunday

Orphans should be lifted up and cared for every day but today is special. Today is Orphan Sunday. Globally it is a day when churches have special services geared toward the fatherless. A single day when the focus can be on those who we are called to care for, the one's who have no voice of their own. I wrote my first Orphan Sunday blog post three years ago. I can't promise you many new things that you've not already seen me write at this point. There is only so much I can say on the subject without repeating myself.

With that said I do want to say this;I both love and hate this day. This is a day I wait for every year, eagerly countind down days and praying leading up to it. A time when I can lift up the fatherless and know that my brothers and sisters around the world are doing the same. There is something incredibly unifying and powerful when you know that you aren't alone in praying for a need. This morning our middle schoolers prayed for those children who need families. Most of these students don't understand why Terry told them that I probably knew more about today than he did. I don't know that any of them but my niece know that what a day like today means to me and why it means what it does.

I also hate this day. I long for the day when there will be no more orphans. When there won't be a child in this world who doesn't have a family.  The reason the day even exists is because there is a need. Take care of the need and the day won't be celebrated any longer. So as much as I wait for this day every year I cannot wait until the first November Sunday when Orphan Sunday no longer exists because there are no children without families to call their own. Maybe that will happen this side of Heaven and maybe it won't.

I know that until that day comes my God is the Father to the fatherless and He hears the cries of those who lift them up to Him.

This morning's sermon was on God's love and knowing God's love. Most of my morning was spent sitting in a church pew pondering over the fact that this love that conquers all is a love that these children need more than anything else. They need God more than they need parents because those parents will mess up. Much as they try those parents can't heal old hurt but the love of God can. His love can break down walls put up for protection. His love can soften a heart that has known nothing but abandonment. His love is the only one that won't fail or forsake them. God cannot and will not abandon them. He is always faithful and always good. A parent can try their hardest but at some point they will mess up because they are human. God cannot mess up, he cannot make a mistake, if He did He wouldn't be God. We can seek to love these children with all our might but our love is only going to go so far because it is only designed to go to a certain point. We are not meant to be the ultimate love, even as a parent, that is for God and Him alone.

I wrote a rather lengthy post on the gospel and orphan care last month and it can be found under that title so I won't go into detail again but I will say this-God adopts us as children when we can give Him nothing, do nothing good, and are worthless. What we become as His children are beloved heirs to His kingdom who through the Holy Spirit can do far more than we imagine as God works through us. Adoption works much the same way. These are children who can offer nothing but need everything, they matter to God so they should matter to us.

I tend to laugh at those who feel like their lives are ending when they reach thirty as if reaching that age is like being cursed. I suppose that is because for me it is like a magic number. Thirty is the minimum age requirement to adopt from China. I've been counting down the years for roughly seven years now. Every Orphan Sunday means I'm only two months from being one year closer to thirty. Come January 20th that count will be four more years. 1460 more days until I'm thirty from that day. While I do not yet meet the other requirements needed, marriage being the other big hurdle, thirty is a starting point.

So while I wait I pray. I pray for 147 million children who need to know love. I pray for families who will be called or have been called to adopt and are stuck in the maze of red tape waiting to bring home sons and daughters and brothers and sisters. I pray for the next generation of young people who will be called to this specific cause. Christians everywhere are called to speak up for the orphan. Some are called to do more.

But I also pray for myself. That I will wait well and I won't waste that time. That I can fight the many feelings that such waiting invokes because not all of them are good. But mostly I pray that if and when the time comes that I can be the father that I should, lead as I should, and show my children that as much as I love them there is one who loves them far more.

"Defend the cause of the fatherless..."Isaiah 1:17