America vs. Jesus

Phew! Just came back from a 6-hour eye camp dedicated entirely to auto drivers. The other Unite for Sight people and I served about 290 people today. LONG day, but sort of fun. I liked chatting with the other volunteers while we worked and the auto drivers were all pretty nice. Hopefully I’ll run into one of them in the coming month and maybe they’ll remember me and give me a free ride somewhere :D

Anyway, ok so I don’t really WANT to tackle this topic because it makes me close my eyes and think really hard at times. Plus, I might sound a bit cynical but…oh well. I really need to get this down in writing. The topic is this: America’s “let’s save the world” mentality vs. Jesus who claims to be the Savior of the world. Now, I put “versus” because I want to contrast the two. But a doubt fills my head to whether people (and myself) these days have actually LINKED Jesus and America together.

Working with an NGO this summer has really brought to light a lot of the disorganization, friction, and inefficiencies of bringing Western help into developing countries. To bring the topic down more personally, I’ve realized the enormous amount of effort it takes to really understand people who live in another, and almost opposite culture than the one I’ve grown up in. With that in mind, what right do I have to say and point fingers to change this or change that…when I have not lived among these Indian people? And really, can I only offer my cash to these people who are in need? Does my expression of love stop there? No, it can’t, it shouldn’t, I don’t want that.

All right. Next. When Christians bring Jesus into another culture, the immediate and conditioned image that comes to my mind is the West entering into a developing country…or maybe some photo of an American standing in sharp contrast with skinny kids dressed in ragged clothing. I sit here wanting that image to change. I’ve been on a couple short-termed mission trips to always come back…longing. Longing to go back, longing to see how the people I met are doing, longing to know that Christianity is not just about seeing conversions summed up in a short confession, but that of a life long journey. If Christianity has seeped so much into American culture then I shouldn’t be surprised to see a lessoning of true care and true love where we come to know the people we serve, where we come as equals, where there is commitment to the people long term.

Now let me look at Jesus, purely Jesus. Philippians 2:6-8 says this about him…

“...being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.”

Jesus became like us. He interacted with us, went through temptations, cried, struggled, rejoiced, enjoyed…like us. He didn’t just come to change the poverty in our souls but became that poverty itself and on that cross came to save. And he came to save, not as some stranger to our “human culture,” but knew each and everyone of us, deeply.

So honestly, what I’m seeing here is that there is such a thing as America vs. Jesus. There is contrast between the two…and that’s pretty hopeful. But is there an America vs. Christianity? I’m not so sure. Sometimes the latter looks too similar.

Sigh, ok yah, tackling that took a toll on my brain. And that’s not even everything of course. But like some other entry I wrote before, there is a time to stop writing and thinking and to start living and taking life a step at a time again.

 

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Ridiculous. I think I’ve said that like, MORE than I can count within the past couple days. All right, sorry for the confusion probably buuut, above is an entry I wrote a couple hours ago and within the last few hours a couple things have happened…one of the volunteers got pretty sick and is spending the night at the hospital and in about half an hour another volunteer is flying back home to the U.S. because of a family emergency. For those reading this and I know, this is a bit far off and you don’t know them personally, please still pray for both of them, emotionally and physically. Thank you