The Invisible Humanitarian: The Mission is Realtionship & Relationship is Mission

"When you begin to think outside the box, you often become some other "leaders" lousy follower. That usually costs something" (Andy Rayner)

"Our guardian angels are bored." (Mike Foster)

It's where I feel I'm at these days. “In the second half of life, it is good just to be a part of the general dance. We do not have to stand out, make defining moves, or be better than anyone else on the dance floor. Life is more participatory than assertive, and there is no need for strong or further self-definition” (Falling Upward. Richard Rohr.120).

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Mission is Realtionship & Relationship is Mission

Had an interesting comment on a quote I placed on my FaceBook profile today... Carrie really got me thinking. So I thought I would share it with you.

"Success and failure, ultimately, have little to do with living the Gospel. Jesus just stood with the outcasts until they were welcomed or until he was crucified-whichever came first." (Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart pg172)

Carrie M:    But wouldn't you say that's a form if living the Gospel?

AJ:        Where I'm at right now, I would change the word... "a" form of living the gospel" to that being "THE" form of living the gospel. Not sure I can explain it well (I usually cant). However, I think we miss that gospel, if anything, is related to the two greatest commands...Love God...Love others.... All that we do is connected to a person, and a person\people. Being with people...hanging out with people..... is the foundation of everything... and building relationships with people, is the greatest success, there is never ever a failure in that. No matter what is achieved, or not achieved, by our efforts. When we stop treating people like our project, the focus of our plan/program, or giving the impression that we are only there because someone else sent us..... then "WE" (Me-I) can truly stand with that person, we might be able to share something, and shall I dare say it, enjoy any benefits such a relationships offers in return... Being with, I mean really being with a person, is the greatest gospel there is.... the greatest gift of all... And no matter what people I have been with on earth (a dozen African ethnic groups) I'm seeing that this is a the core of the heart of any person/people.

Carrie M: OK, he is saying the when we "live the Gospel" what we are really doing is treating the world as a project? I can get that. We need to stop looking at life as a mission project and truly "be" with people, only then will we be living the Gospel as Jesus intended?

AJ:          I would say (And I think Boyle is possibly getting at) that mission is impossible without relationship. Relationship is the mission. "Mission" is relationship. Connected to the father, and to others..... just doing things "at" people, "for" people, and "to" people, can be done, but it seems to result in little that is enduring... or endearing. The greatest result is not in what we actually did, but in how we connected.... ???????
I might change that last line from "Did", to "Accomplished"... Because we have have control over what we do, but not what we accomplish.

Carrie M:    I love this! It puts all of those "mission projects" into a different light, doesn't it? How many of us love to do things at, to, and for people, but really don't want to know people? Humbling...

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J. R.R. Tolkien - Peace is Never Free

"………….. and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it."

J. R.R. Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring" , 1985, George & Allen & Urwin Pub LTD(Page 22-23 prologue)

Who Is This Dude?

West African humanitarian NGO - Canadian commercial fishing Captain (Yep with his own boat -SCARY). Who writes too much, too poorly, over analyzes human religious behavior (NOT ACCEPTABLE), probably loves Africa WAY too much, outgrew the church container and is finally living free from the busy western paradigm of "program driven" attractional institutional church management (You've got to be bitter, angry or hurt! NOPE!), But is still a Christian, active in service, and is part of a "church" family- just not one that looks like yours with an address, parking lot and shingle out front, is all (That's a bit crazy and REALLY Suspicious). Who keeps pointing to Jesus (Come on, there's got to be more to it than that), as no one needs to see me, just him. LOVES being lost in a conversation, a book, at sea, in the bush of West Africa, and especially on a motorcycle (I knew it - you're a freaking HIPPIE). Is happy knee deep in fish and friendship. Have an AMAZING WOMAN walking with me. "Every foreign land is to them as their native country and every country of their birth as a land of strangers." Diognetus

Challenging Life's Platitudes and Seeking Perspective!

"I have walked that long road to freedom. .....I have taken a moment here to rest........But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended." Nelson Mandela. “Long Walk to Freedom”, p625, 1994, Little, Brown & company.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime." - Mark Twain

"What is the point of all of this? To destroy a man who seeks the truth or to destroy the truth so no man can seek it. Either way, you loose"
Agent Rheas, X Files , "The Truth" Season 9, Episode 19, 20, 2003, Time 53.25

"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid God might ask me the same question." Amy Campbell

"One meets his destiny often on the road he takes to avoid it." French Proverb

"When you pray, move your feet." African Proverb

"Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home." Jesus Luke 16:9

“Be afraid to die until you have won some small victory for humanity.” --Horace Mann

After the Genocide of 800.000 in Rwanda “………following my return from Rwanda, a Canadian Forces padre asked me how, after all I had seen and experienced, I could still believe in God. I answered that I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a God."...... (LGen Romeo Dallaire “Shake hands with the Devil” pg xviii, 2003, Randon House Canada.)

Be Change Agents!

“Be afraid to die until you have won some small victory for humanity.” Horace Mann

"Privilege is being born on third base and thinking you hit a triple.” Ann Richards

“Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?” Robert F. Kennedy

“The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference.” Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Crisis is opportunity riding a dangerous wind.” Chinese proverb

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” Mother Theresa

“To do good, you actually have to DO something.” Yvon Chouinard

“Every day is a new chance to choose.” Ishita Gupta

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.” Mother Theresa

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing, than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance” e.e. cummings

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela

The Invisible Humanitarian

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Mission is Realtionship & Relationship is Mission

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