This Week

This week we talked about the Body of Christ, and diversity in unity, and the necessity for both. The scripture passage we used is 1 Corinthians 12. Specifically, 12-14 and 18-20. Sunday they will be talking and learning about how the members of the Body work together. The scriptures passage is the same, except the verses are 14-26 or 27, I think.
The verse that kind of carries the theme for this series is 1 Corinthians 12:18, "But as it is, God aranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose."
This verse really speaks to me for a number of reasons. One, because I'm a bit intoxicated with the "post-modern persuasion," to put it...rather amusingly. This verse totally suggests, to me at least, the idea of a "post-modern church," shall we call it, in which God has so deliberately and delicately placed each character in the narrative of the church family exactly where he/she should be. To me, this verse affirms the individuality of each church and each church's mission, and at the same time bestows upon each church the love and favor of God.
I really love this verse. There have been a few that I have read over the years that have spoken to me louder than a screaming baby on a crowded plane, and this one does just that. I'm in love with it. The only thing I wish was here was some serious character application. You don't get a whole lot of that out of this verse, except the affirmation and charge that God has placed us in the church for a reason, and we should be fulfilling that reason.
Anyway, to move on.
Something I'm struggling with -- maybe I shouldn't say struggle, maybe, working through -- is the fact that I'm working entirely with an hispanic community. Some are Mexican, some Peruvian or Venezuelan (sp?), some maybe even Dominican or Honduran. Growing up in Midlothian as a sheltered little white boy that went to a sheltering little white church and now working entirely with hispanics takes me way out of my league. Way out of my culture.
At MHS, I naturally adopted the similar arrogant disrespect of the white students for most all hispanic students that also carried with it a hint of fear simply because their culture was foreign to our own. Simply, I didn't like them because I thought I was better, but I was scared of them because I didn't know them.
Being at Lifepoint now, however, is really pushing those perceptions. I'm having to learn to see past that arrogant disrespect and shallow fear, and see these kids as my friends and family and love them as that.
Today, I worked alongside two Mexican gentlemen who send all their money home to their family to support them so they can live. One of these gentlemen was telling me that school in Mexico is too expensive for him to afford, so he never went. He came to America to make money to send home. The other guy I was working with was 17. When I was 17 I was a jackass, to put it bluntly. I was a jackass to my family and myself, and I almost ruined my life. I spent too much time wasting time. I blew off school even when I could have been making straight As and be in the top of my class. This kid doesn't go to school. He goes and stands out by the post office every morning praying that he gets picked up so he can work and make money and help his family afford a life he may never get to have.
I really struggled today when my supervisor told me to do nothing and "Let them do it." Am I not getting paid just like them? Did I not agree to work for the exact same wages as they did? Am I something more of a human than they are? I seriously struggled with standing around today, watching them dig holes through solid rock and tear out fragments of concrete and then mix80 lb. bags of cement while I measured a string line, or checked to make sure a post was level.
All day my supervisor would talk to me and engage me in conversation. I know him, he knows my family, he's letting me work for him because I need a summer job. Not once did he talk to them. I don't say this to give fault or discredit to my supervisor because he is a good man. I bring this up because this is exactly how I've lived my life for the past 19 years. "Ignore them...let them do it...that's what they're getting paid to do." It breaks my heart to place myself in a position above the people of the spanish speaking community when all that I am doing this summer is see myself as one of them. I really cannot deal with the fact that I'm supposed to accept some sort of preference over them, and yet at the same time I'm loving them as they were my own friends and family, and I'm being paid to teach that we are equals, just like my friends and family.
I can't love the kids, and ignore the parents. God speaks spanish too, and God loves those who speak spanish just as much as He loves those of us who speak english. How can I care about the youth of the church, and yet ignore the men in the streets? This summer is breaking me of some seriously deep reservations and some pretty serious culture barriers I've held pretty firmly for far too long. These cultural barriers are too prevalent in all of society. I cannot sweat and dig and work alongside these gentlemen and teach students who are not so removed from these men's very status and position in life and still think of myself and percieve myself as worthy of "letting them do it." If these men can recieve God's love just as I do, then I should be just as willing to give just as much of myself to get the job done as they do.
The people of the spanish-speaking community are looking for love just as much as those who live in a different community. I am grateful and glad that I'm getting the opportunity to labor and love alongside the people that I have worked so hard to ignore and forget.