Engage?

What can and should a responsible, kingdom-minded citizen do in the political realm? This has been a recurring thought for me over the past several months. 

Before 2016, I had a certain apathy toward politics. I voted when my ballot showed up but I saw the overt involvement of certain Christians during the election season as misattributed and over concentrated. 

I grew up with the the color red being the proper party to vote for and that was equated with what it meant to be a Christian or at least how to vote your values. Once you voted then your duty was done and you could go on with life. Granted, none of these things were explicitly said but it was the tea I was steeped in and I have recently realized that I did not like the flavor. 

"Surely, there are Jesus-loving Christians that align themselves with ideals and platforms of the blue", I thought. Certainly, I am called to do more than fill in a bubble and call my love of city and the people around me as completed for two years. 

At the same time I have found our involvement as too narrow in scope and overemphasized in direction. I threw myself into reading and research on how our system works and pondering what was an appropriate and worthwhile level of engagement. 

I am arriving at multiple conclusions.

1. There are values and stances in each party that should be attractive to a kingdom-minded Christian. No party has the monopoly on the label "Christian party".

2. Stopping engagement at the ballot is too soon. As kingdom ambassadors we are called to proclaim, reveal and spread the values of the kingdom wherever we are. A failure to do that is a failure to act as ambassadors for our king. 

3. Engaging in politics, or public service, in at least the local level for the good of people, the bringing of grace, and the protection of the disenfranchised is a good and noble endeavor. Much of what we do as Christians, loving our cities, engaging with neighbors, leveraging resources for the good of children, the broken, and the hurting, are hand in hand with the values of good local government. Where our ends are the same as local involvement, let us walk together. 

What does this practically mean? For my own life I am coming to a few conclusions.

I already want to meet my neighbors; I should attend my local neighborhood association and meet all the neighbors that love my neighborhood. I care about the lives of orphans and babies; I can be engaged in supporting child care systems in my county. I care for the safety of my neighbors so they can have a place to raise their children and be comfortable with our kids playing in the neighborhood; I can join the safety adivisory board to help toward that end. 

If there is opportunity and resources to bring grace and goodness to the people around you as an ambassador of Christ I see it as a lapse in responsibility to not utilizes them to love people. 

For those that may mishear me, I am not advocating a role or engagement in politics as a replacement for the Great Comission or discipleship. I, rather, see it as a companion of discipleship fueled by the same anticipation of the Kingdom initiated by the Gospel. 

On Video Games and Discipline

I found myself reminiscing my college video game days with a couple junior highers at life group. We were talking about our shared affinity for Halo and how we could play for hours. 

I was sharing that in college I played so much Halo the game display was burned into my retinas. When I closed my eyes in bed I could still see the screen. 

Something happened between college and now. My time is not invested in games like it used to be and freedom to use my time how I wish has only increased. I don't think video games are inherently bad, although the excess above is less than good stewardship. 

With my desires to follow fast after my King and use my life in a way that makes him look good, I find the presence of video games to be a hinderance to be avoided. 

It has been said that the difference between you now and a year from now is the books you read and the people you meet. With that knowledge I put myself in a heavy regiment of reading and schedule my weeks around opportunities to invest in people. 

If I ever download a new game app on my phone, the small moments that can be used for reading become the default time to make sure I grabbed all the coins on the next Mario level. Where my leisure or study time was filled with learning it is now consumed but the psychological need to level up and push my stats. 

After a couple weeks, I realize there is no positive difference between the man I was and now am. I have stunted my growth and reverted back to filling my time with selfish enagament toward bytes. 

I don't take the side that it is an evil to be completely avoided but, like most everything in life, it is something that can be allotted too much time and attention. And for some it holds an addictive sway that demands more and more attention. 

Some find a game as a necessary spot of relaxation and decompression, and I admit it can be that, but where that is my first "reason" I am quickly thrust back into the world and find it hard to pull out. 

The games are an active hindrance for me that requires active discipline to assure that my time is not held captive by it. I delete a game from my device, fondly miss it for a day, after a week realize I finished a book, and in three weeks engage in conversation extropolating, teaching or challenging based off of what I read. My ability to plug into people increases when I unplug from games. 

There is much to do and many people to engage with for the Kingdom. Put rythyms of rest into your life but make sure they are not hinderances that will latch onto your interests, time and effectiveness.

Of Mirrors and Gangs

Were there really glory days? Are we progressively getting better? 

Barbara Tuchman’s tome on the 14th century, A Distant Mirror, is a long walk through a dismal history. It takes the vantage point of a certain Enguerrand de Coucy as it looks through the century. But even with this “personal” view it is a hard read. 

The book traverses through the entirety of the century, dipping in and out of details as they punctuate the evils of the era. The Black Death. A scandalized church. A misaligned chivalry. Some things were unexpected catastrophes. Others were a sustained shame. And some were broken from the start.

I had hoped to gain some grand insight from the assignment but I came away with frustration and disgust. It was only in the title that I gained the biggest reminder. This century truly was a distant mirror—a way for us to see our own countenance. This century only goes to show us that there were no glory days. The evils of then exist today, though our methods may have changed or become more “civilized” (but perhaps not), and yet we continue to trumpet progress.

My questions prodded further when I watched the Scorsese film Gangs of New York. Housing a couple great performances (Day-Lewis and Dicaprio), it is a debauched story of the dark history of New York in the 1800s around the time of the Civil War. Albeit a dramatic story, this painted a picture no less dark than the century 500 years before. 

But after the 13th century we boasted of the Enlightenment and the Reformation. Unfortunately, after that bright spot came The Civil War, the Great War and its sequel (to put it in gross simplifications). To me, the history of man and his practices on the globe seem to be more cyclical than a constant progression toward perfection. We ought to study the past to see how we have acted rather than assuming the chronological high ground and claiming our spot as the most progressive. Just because we are further down the timeline does not mean we are more noble in the way we treat each other. This could be a bright spot but I shudder to ponder what reflection of that distant mirror could be in the future.

Matt Chandler said it well, “There were no glory days. There is going to be one.” All of this pondering of our status in the grand scheme of human history should have us putting our hope not in our current status but in the future, one and only, glory day.

Critically Acclaimed or Popular

If ever I become interested in something I want to invest in learning about it, understanding the intricacies, and studying the great examples of the category.

I have found that there are two paths to go down. I can devote my time and energy to the list of the critics and the professionals or I can devote myself to the favorites and the popular. A friend of mine has been in debate with me about this for a couple years. He trusts the list of the popular and I prefer to run to the critics. 

For instance, when I decided to read more books I compiled a list of the classic works and the required reading from multiple colleges. When I get interested in a beverage, I order the “complete course” book about the drink. When I decided to start being more judicious with my movie watching I threw the entirety of the AFI top 100 list into my Netflix queue. (In the most recent iteration of this I have a complicated random system for choosing a movie)

Why does my mind seem to bend this way when investing in something?

Ideals

Part of my draw is associated with my fascination of ideals. The Platonic idea that there is an ideal in any category and all of our creations are really attempts to emulate or align with the ideal. I believe the world was created good and whole but now is broken. When we create and create well we are working toward the good, and thus the ideal, that once was and which will one day be restored. If I am going to invest in a category of discovery I want to be able to find and experience the members of that category that are most closely associated with the ideal.

Professional and Critical Opinion

I also care what the professionals and critics of a category think. They have invested their lives or careers in observing or crafting excellence in their field. They, often, are not willing to allow something to be “ok”. They want greatness. They compared to the prior “greats” or classics and submit their opinions or critiques with those in mind.

Required to Think

If I submit myself to a list that includes the critically acclaimed work I am including myself into a grander narrative. If it is literature, I am reading the works that inform and influence the works that come after them. The more I read the more I understand that many authors are talking to each other and responding to what came before. 

In movies, I am beginning to see how modern films use techniques or try to mimic styles of the greats that came before. Nothing is created in isolation. 

When I submit myself to this list I am requiring myself to think and consider what is being said or crafted, how it has been molded, and how it responds to what preceded it. This, though sometimes work, is an exercise I find very enjoyable and, the more I practice, very rewarding.

What path do you choose? Why do you think you are prone to that direction?

Blood

He is just there…on all fours, in front of my house. His head is down. I assume he is throwing up, or had collapsed or is having a seizure.

I stand up to look out the window. As I near the glass I watch him go to a prone position and jump from the ground, thrusting his head into the concrete wall he had been lying beside. It is a disgusting sight. He falls in a heap next to the wall.

I grab a phone and dial for emergency and two friends come out with me to witness the scene.

Blood. Stark and dramatic. On the ground, on the wall, on his head, his face…everywhere.

It’s hard to know what to do. Blood is risky. I don’t know what is in it. I don’t know why this guy is throwing himself around. Drugs? Psychosis? Disease? But the blood is there. He is there. I am staring at him.

The man makes a move to stand up. The movement is stilted and he plops down like a dejected child. His eyes are wide and confused. We grab some paper towels and tell him to put them on his head. His hair is matted and stained. The towels begin to soak up the blood and the contrast of white and red is unnerving.

He tries to stand again and I instruct him against it, “Just keep sitting, buddy. Help is coming. Just hold the towels.”

His eyes remain confused and he looks at us as though he is uncertain of our intent. 

He tries to stand again pulling his hand off his head and bracing to get up. He starts to move in a way that looks like he is going to break through the barrier we have created in front of him. I imagine he would flail and run right toward me, trying to get through me, bloody hands and face and clothes. Do I let him run? Do I risk the blood? The danger? Do I put myself in front of someone to potentially save their life?

“Just keep sitting, buddy. Help is coming. Keep the towels on your head.”

He sits childlike, confused, and perhaps uncertain where he is. He begins to move his hand back to his head and looks at us as though for approval of the appropriate action.

“What is your name, buddy?”

“Brian. Brian John Keller,” The names come out haltingly.

“Hi Brian. I’m Aeric. Where do you live?”

“Right around here. I used to go to school right up the hill.”

He takes his hand off his head and we go through the same procedure. We coach him back and he looks again for approval.

He turns with his searching eyes and looks at me, “Are you going to help me kill myself?”

I’m nauseous. I look at the ungiving concrete and the stains and realize he thrust his own head into the sidewalk and the wall with purpose. This man in front of my house is bleeding because he is trying to end his life by throwing it against a wall.

His hands go down to his sides, readying himself to stand up again, and my uncertainty increases. Do I risk safety for this man? Do I let him run? Do I risk the blood? The danger? Do I put myself in front of someone who is trying to die in a raw, determined way? Do I risk myself to potentially save his life? Am I willing to get blood on my hands for this neighbor? How far do I go to bring life to someone running toward death?

“Sit down, buddy. Help is coming…”

Schedule

I recently graduated after 6 years of working through school. It is a relief and a welcome change to the pace of life. There is also an obvious absence of the work load that filled every crevice of the free time I had. 

My wife and I have taken this as an opportunity to reorganize our weekly schedule and refocus it for better purposes. During this process I realized that I am a selfish person. As I looked through the weekly schedule I defaulted toward putting an open weekday evening or weekend afternoon toward “free time” or “chill time”. With this kind of emphasis there could be no margin for loving people, hosting people, knowing my neighbors and positioning my life as a missionary.   The realization has got my mind into a space where it is analyzing how I make decisions about how my life is geared. 

So often the way I make decisions about my time is based on how I can benefit or how I will feel about the activity. I am naturally quite introverted and would default to sitting in a corner, in a comfy chair, reading a book with curated music streaming through my headphones. Given the chance I would pick this often. Or every time. But in this choice I reveal to myself that the Gospel is not being considered in the way I scheduled my time. Only I am considered. 

The Gospel is the great news that I have been rescued by a good King who is working his plan of redemption and restoration throughout the cosmos. This glorious plan culminates in his complete Kingdom. The awesome aspect of this news—well, one of them— is that I have been included in the plan to redeem and restore. I have been called into the great drama and I get to participate by living my life in a Kingdom-focused fashion and making disciples by explaining and reiterating this great news. 

This news has implications on every aspect of my life. And if I give it the proper weight in decision making I realize that every piece of my life can be tweaked to better point toward the kingdom. 

What time should I wake up and why? When should I go to bed? How should I spend my weekends? How will I incorporate a rhythm of rest so that I am renewed to serve and love? Does my life have margin to love people and meet new people so I can show them the Kingdom or am I more interested in sitting in my corner? How will I work my job and what kind of job will I invest in? 

This is still in process for me and I don’t know how comprehensive the influence of the Gospel will be but I have suspicions that it will not cease making changes in my life. The King I align with has not changed my life in a nominal way but in a radical way and the changes will continue to come. 

If I think those changes can be packaged in a 2 hour per week time slot I may not be running toward my King the way I thought I was.