Homelessness

A few weeks ago, Jess Alexander and I went out on a walk. I went and got a cake shake, then we headed towards Michigan Ave. Eventually, we set out our destination as the Marilyn Monroe statue. 

Michigan Ave. is a great place for shopping. There is money changing hands all over the place, so it also ends up being a great place for homeless people. Some may be keeping pace with people and harassing them. One lady that I have seen before is in a head covering and ducks her face behind the sign she has made. I've even seen a man who was laughing and counting a wad of money while I walked past, although that's by no means normal. When Jess and I passed one homeless person and turned down his request for money, Jess asked me what I think Christians should do about homelessness.

I am a part of Frontlines which is a student group on campus that connects with homeless people around the city. We go out every week to hand out food and make relationships with these people. The point is to talk to the same people every week and work to build a friendship as well as meeting their physical needs. I most likely do have a better perspective on the problem than most people through my limited engagement with their situation, but I was not able to give Jess a good answer. I don't even remember what I said because I sputtered out some lame crap.

I believe that the easiest solution would be for the government to fund a program for every major city to have a place for all homeless people to come to and get rehabilitated in a way. The money would be an important part, but the time would be even more important. That is to say that the resources need to be there, but in the end it would need to be done with much gritty perseverance. It is important to give people a place to sleep and some food, but on top of that we need to ready them for life as well. But that is some crazy pipe dream about what could work if there was a desire to do it.

Aside from the lofty stuff from a person who isn't well-read on the issue of homelessness, but has spoken with some of these people. On a practical level, I think people should give money to homeless people, if it seems right at the time. When I don't have cash ready to go in my pocket, I don't give it. When I don't have any money at all, I don't give it.  If a person is really tugging at your heart strings, but you keep coming back to the thought that they will use it to get drunk or high, there is one obvious thing to do: Talk to them. Homeless people are like any other person in that you can tell whether they are genuine or not in one minute of conversation. 

Other slightly less practical things are to befriend one of these people or volunteer at a shelter. Christ said that whatever we "do to the least of these", we might as well be doing to Him. Homeless people definitely fall into that category, so we should at the very least be friendly to these people, if not completely their friends. I hope that I'll always be able to have at least one homeless friend. Money can patch a small need, but the ultimate need is hope. One thing I want to stress moving forward with Frontlines is encouraging these people to try and find jobs or any way off of the streets. If we make friends with them and don't try to help them change their lives at all, then we are failing them as friends.

Overall, it's easy to feel totally wrecked by the idea of homeless people. They don't have so much that we do have. It might be callous to say, but homelessness is something that is always going to happen in cities. Or at least until there is no addiction, crime, or poverty. It should make us slightly sad, and there are small things we can do. There are also large things that some of us can do if we feel so inclined. If I can eventually help start or run some sort of homeless shelter, it will bring me unspeakable joy. But right now the only thing I know to do is study for my Christianity in Western Culture midterm... (sighs).

Class Council Devotion

For Class Council's fortnightly e-mail, I wrote the devotion this week. I don't want devotions like this to be the main function of my blog, but I think it would be fun to share one. Especially since 400 other people are having it sent to their e-mails. In fact, I haven't even gotten this approved or proof-read. I like it though. There will be some commentary from me too. Here it is though:

"Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light. So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him."

Luke 8:16-18

In class chapel we looked at the parable of the talents. We saw how the master punished or rewarded his slaves according to how well they worked. I used that parable to talk about how God wants us to act in our situation. My call was for our class to become a class of action in Chicago. Too often people at our school become complacent with a life shut off from the city. I hope that everyone has taken the chance to consider how they can be even slightly more active in Chicago. It is the task of Moody to be a witness to Chicago. We all need to examine our place in that.

Aside: You see I did this message for Class Chapel which I described above, and there were some people that complained about it. One, because I told a lot of jokes. Two, because people did not want to take it seriously and apply it. I wanted to make an intense dig against those sort of people here, but instead I just reiterated my point. Those people wanted to call my chapel "not serious" or "apathetic" but they have no room to talk, because I gave a strong call to action. If they missed it, that's fine, but then they also can't talk about it. And it's fine that I'm addressing this to the public, because nobody criticized it to me. Alright, there's my bit on that. Here is the rest of my devotional thing unadulterated. 

For my devotional here, I want to talk about the Parable of the Lamp. The Matthew version of this passage is better known (Matt. 5:14-16) as it
elaborates on the point made at the beginning of our passage, but this passage takes the idea to a different place. Instead of dwelling on the idea of the lamp, the lampstand, and the burden of the believer in the world, it shows the affect that a believer will have on the rest of the world:

"For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light."

Lately, I have been rather tried by the duty that Christians have in the world. It is hard to hold any minority belief, and a true believer in Christ will not find an ally with most people that they meet around town. And those that they agree with still may not live according to Christ's words. It is a despairing thing to consider. This anxiety can lead us to spread the word with more fervor, compromise, or throw a pity party. The great Christians that we still read about (as well those we don't read about) chose the first option. Perhaps it was because they chose took note of the verse above.

Not every conversation we have with a non-believer will end with them accepting Christ either immediately or ever. An evangelistic sermon might lead most of an audience to repentance, but most likely not everyone. Many people die without accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for themselves. Like I said before, it is a despairing thing to consider. But there was never any promise that our message would be popular or widely accepted. In fact, Jesus tells us to shine that light on the dark world no matter what. The promise is that nothing will ever be able to escape the piercing light. Even if people run the other way, we are not responsible for their decision. It is not comforting that people reject Christ, but we can be comforted that Christ would have us shine regardless. Sometimes our message will make us unpopular as it did for the prophets and the apostles. Sometimes our message will bring us acclaim like Charles Spurgeon or DL Moody. One thing is sure. If we preach the message (in word and deed) yet people turn away: We are still fulfilling Christ's call and glorifying God.

Shine. It is a call to obedience. Being accepted does not mean obedience, and being ridiculed or hated does not necessarily mean disobedience.

Roll Call

My stats on blogger show that my readership in Russia... exists.

So if you are reading this from Russia please comment.

Reluctantly Conservative

I am halfway through a book about 20th Century Theology. It is an overview of the scholarly movements there have been  in theology over the last 150 years. The point in reading it is to gain a cursory knowledge of all these different movements and better understand where different movements and figures stand in context. The first half included all of the people that I wanted to read about. I already had an appreciation for Barth and Brunner who are both very concerned with the Bible and orthodoxy. I had been told before that Ritschl, Bultmann, and Tillich were either heretics, atheists, or deists, but I really didn't know much about them.

I assumed that people were over emphasizing the problems with some of these theologies. All of the "heretics" listed above started with an idea. Ritschl wanted to formulate a theology that showed God as revealed in every culture (as though God could not do that on His own). Bultmann wanted to apply existential forms to the Bible and reconcile the "myths" of the Bible with the modern scientific view. And Tillich wanted to make his theology an apologetic for the faith by formulating theological answers on the terms of their philosophical questions. The only reason I am giving these reductionist summaries of their views is to show what can be plainly seen: These men are geniuses who committed to a theory and carrying that theory to its logical conclusion.

My theological background is more grounded in Luther, Calvin, and  Lewis: Men that are totally okay with the historic, biblical answers to theological questions. I have built onto this foundation with the thoughts of Barth, Brunner, and Kierkegaard.

What this new reading has shown me is that I have found the creative reaches of my theology. For the first time, I've read up on new theologies and had to completely disagree. I can appreciate that these were expressions of the Christian faith that sprung out of specific cultural and historic contexts, but I have to call a spade a spade as well. If a theology does not center itself on the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is not right, and it is hardly Christian. Bultmann seems to retain a bit of this (only a bit), while Tillich discards Christ, and Ritschl only pays Him lip service.

Honestly, I wanted to read this book and find eye-opening new ways to view theology. Fresh, underrated theologies that could continue to brighten my views of God. It has only succeeded in showing me where incorrect beliefs have cropped up and how they did. Overall, I hate that I have to settle with the mainstream theologians, though I suppose they are mainstream for a reason: They celebrate a faith that centers itself on Christ, the Spirit, and the Word. They use all of these thing to bring themselves closer (though only in small increments) to an understanding of God.

Christianity is a religion where these long philosophical systems will never be able to work. The only way to truly reach God is in humility and through the example of only one man: Jesus Christ. The best possible thing we can do with this knowledge is to proclaim it in our words and lives. All of the theology is really interesting, but it cannot pull us off the vitally important truths that redeemed us in the first place. Or as Paul said it, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ" (Col. 2:8).

Dr. Litfin said in my Christianity in Western Culture class last week that it is not a theologian's job to create something new, but to find new ways to repeat the old... Well then theology sounds boring compared to working for the Kingdom of God.

-Sam

Farewell, Facebook

Jess and Craig deleted their Facebooks near the end of this Summer. I was slightly peeved, because I have always gotten annoyed with people retracting from Facebook only to be different in some capacity,but alas, I have finally seen the error of my ways. They are right. I must be leaving Facebook.

The short and totally uninteresting reason is that I want to have more time. I am not the person that spends even an hour a day on Facebook, but if I add up all of the time I spend on Facebook it is still formidable. I can get lost staring at it, when I could be studying, reading, or anything else. I waste time on twitter as well, but most of that time is on the El or the elevator. I look through the Royals tweets, see what HipsterMermaid has said and connect with friends. With that I feel like I'm interacting with people. I'm on Google+ currently, but I spend no time on it. At present, it is just an extension of my Gmail account. I only say these things though to get people off my back about my other internet usage and to explain how I'm not a hypocrite. I will become a much more effective human being post-Facebook. If the other sites start to distract me, then I will delete them to. At present, they are still innocent fun. Not to mention, there are many obvious differences between a twitter, a blog and Facebook.

The other loftier reason is wrapped up in the reason that I also had reservations for deleting my Facebook. I though that in deleting my Facebook I would be losing a lot of positive things. I would no longer have 1,251 pictures, instant connection to 740 people, or a way of chatting with the ten people I care to chat with. I was losing this extension of myself. I do not only exist on the internet, but I have invested a lot of me into the internet. I will be sad to lose the things I listed, but I will not be destroyed. I was telling Jess that when I delete my Facebook, I will have a much more concrete existence. My life will cease to hinge on whether a person in every country can pull up my life summary. I do not exist any less because my friends from high school cannot fully follow my life. I do not exist any less because all of those pictures are lost. My other uses of the internet, this blog and twitter, don't depend so much on my past. They are completely wrapped up in my present.

Now when I walk down the street in Chicago, all of me is walking down the street. I can pull out my phone and tweet. I can stop off in Starbucks and post a quick blog. But when I walk by a person, they aren't my friend unless they come talk to me. There is no extension of me that a person thousands of miles away can look at.

One of the sadder points of losing Facebook is the sheer amount of time I have put into that site. It is odd to get sentimental about it, but I will be. I was telling my roommate Eli last night this realization: I have done very few things in my life as long as I have done Facebook. My tagged picture was posted on June 23 2006. That means that I have been on Facebook five years and four months. A ton of crap has happened in that time. Some of the first pictures I have on Facebook are from my first Homecoming. Facebook must have all of my past relationship statuses on record. There are hundreds of pictures of me playing bass in rowdy bands. There are a lot of good conversations and classic statuses I've made. Being sentimental about those things is entirely pathetic, but I loved all of it. I'm putting a chapter of my life to rest. There are very few things that I've done for longer than five years.

And tomorrow, I delete my Facebook.

-Sam

The Power of Prayer

I wish I had some great story to justify those words as my title. The fact is, I finished reading a book called The Power of Prayer by RA Torrey, and I wanted to tell people about it as well as recommend it.

RA Torrey was the second president at Moody. Our auditorium is named after him and some guy named Gray (or maybe Grey).  It was neat to learn about the sort of prayer warrior that he was. He wrote one heck of a book as well, but really the main thing I learned about him is this: RA Torrey would hate me, and if he walked into Moody today, he would foam at the mouth. At one point in the book, he gets completely off subject and talks for half a chapter about the sins of going to the theatre, going to movies, dancing, and playing cards. I've seen all four of those things take place on this campus in the last year... Perhaps even in the last week.

I won't hold that against him too much. The point of his getting off topic in that way was to talk about obstacles to a good prayer life. People forget that the Bible's promise for answered prayers often hinge on the persons devotion to Christ, His words, and His commandments. Some promises from the Bible people often cite about how God answers any prayer, really refer to how God will answer the prayer of righteous men. In fact, the longest chapter of the book was called "Hindrances to Prayer". It was like being punched in the gut in some ways, because Torrey brought out truths about prayer that many forget. We would rather write our shortcomings in prayer off as "prayers aren't answered in the same way anymore" rather than point to our own sin as a reason for ineffective prayer.

Past that, Torrey gives many guidelines for good praying. I just wrote them out, then I was like, "Nah, they're gonna need to read it. I can't explain it well enough."

One of the most amazing features of the book was just Torrey's heart for prayer. He talked about staying up all night at one time to pray for his brother's salvation. It made me wonder if I could do that. It made me wonder if I could be focused enough. Really some things Torrey said might be discredited as "charismatic" by many professors and students at Moody. That is only because so few of us see that real heart for prayer anymore.

At one point last year, I started to get more serious about my prayer, because I had been doing such a dirt poor job up until that point. I feel like it is something that God is being forced to cultivate in me and I continue to pray for a better prayer life. It was a tough book to read, because it felt odd reading more than one chapter at a time. Like at a every point, I needed to chuck the book and start praying. It is a hard thing to communicate in a boring blog entry, but the book taught me about the importance of prayer and why my prayer life had tons of untapped potential. In the book he would talked about prayer as the most important endeavor in life, and I don't treat it like that. That's a problem.

Anyways... Read it.

I'm starting to proof-read these less and less.

-Sam

Two Places I Wanted to be

My two signs that this will be a fine year came on consecutive days this weekend.

The first took place on Friday night. I had planned all week to go see the movie Fiddler on the Roof on campus, but a few hours before my friend Jess decided that we should go see improv instead. Up to that point, I thought we had all agreed to spend a quiet evening on campus watching Jewish people sing about tradition (TRAAADITIOOON!). Instead we ended up seeing long form Shakespearean improv which was mind blowingly good. Afterwards we went looking for a good meal. We literally searched for it, getting off the Brown Line at the Belmont stop which we do not know very well.

We eventually found a place called Clark Street Hot Dog's or something like that. The Chicago-style dogs were pretty good, but the best part was sitting in this cruddy looking dining area with Jess, Craig, and Eli (the only people that follow this blog in the most technical sense). We were in a booth, and we just sat and talked. It was really nothing special. We did not end up having some state of the friendship talk, but we enjoyed ourselves and laughed about life and all that stuff. I had this realization that these were the friends that I needed at school. Friends that I could struggle along with in my faith. Friends that I can always have good talks with. Friends that I might be able to have for a long time.

We hung out at the end of last year, but we there we were a month into this year. Already established.

The following night, New Life Lincoln Park had its fall ministry kick-off in gym at church. I really did not know what to expect going into the meeting. I did not expect the surprisingly pervasive football theme, but that is neither here nor there..

The meeting started with everyone eating and Pastor Rick thanking everyone who had been involved in all of their different ministries. It changed gears when Bobby Moss stood up. First, he showed us, most of us for the first time, the new goals for the broader New Life church. For those who don't know, New Life is a network churches in the Chicago area. There are currently 14 campuses and I go the Lincoln Park branch. One of the new goals is to create 40 new churches before 2020. At that news, my jaw literally dropped. It took the church 25 years to create the 14 campuses, so the new idea of making 40 new churches (at a responsible rate) in less than half that time. And the emergence of that idea changed the whole complexion of the meeting. It reminded us that we do not go to some church where we will just be able to attend. New Life was calling all of the churches to aggressively dream, and for every member to help in their mission of spreading Christ. To make this kind of dream happen, they need every person to do their part.

That meeting showed me how great of a church I go to. With the rest of the time, we talked about being more active in Lincoln Park, being more active at Depaul, growing, stabilizing,  enriching the spiritual life our congregation, and being able to spawn our own sister church with our own resources. The best thing is that we are not going to let these ideas die with one night of optimistic brainstorming. It is all very possible. It will take more people stepping out, more prayer, and plenty of patience, but I will not take some crazy new way of doing church, we just have to stay faithful.

Things combined made a pretty great weekend. If the job interview that I had Saturday also comes through, then I might be able to look back on it as on of the most important weekends of my life. If not though, it will still rank pretty high.

-Sam