elementary my dear w

yesterday tbV and now my friend as well, brian watson, dropped in for a visit… from South Africa, brian is in the middle of doing his PHD in Arizona in stuff you would have to hear to not really understand [altho solar power and keeping particles the right distance from each other and a billionth of a meter thin wire all enter into it] and it was great to get to see him.

he is actually spending most of the weekend with a friend of his in NYC so trained his way through to hang with us from yesterday afternoon and then left eeearly this morning…

what was really cool was that in the village house over a snack and then later on the train and then outside Mad Mex bar and then on the train and then during and after the potluck we had a number of significant conversations. at least a week’s worth altho probly closer to a month or a year for a lot of people i know.

real talk. about real things. life changing things. frustration with wanting church to get it a little bit closer to God’s way things. relationship things. community things.

[and actually we did touch on sport and movies and food in there but the point being that we spent so little time together - relatively - and yet the conversation was so rich]

i hesitate to finish with a challenge cos i suspect the kind of people who read this blog are the kind of people for whom rich conversations are the norm – not necessarily every one, but at least sometimes, and preferably often. and so maybe the challenge is more about challenging the people you know who can get through a year or a month or a week’s worth of conversations and only have dealt with the latest or rehashed information about food, sport and movies.

our time with brian left us feeling like we’d grown a bit and hopefully he did as well. we got stuff to think about and hopefully gave some. as a result of some of the talk that happened things will probably change, maybe in small ways, but maybe later in larger ones.

i still want to be able to quote Monty Python and get amped when we thrash the Aussies in the coming cricket test match and defend Michael Schumacher’s comeback [give him a car, Ross!] and do weird and silly voices with Monkman and get amped for coffee and chocolate and mashed potato… but at the same time i want to grapple with the problem of the drug dealers on our doorstep and try to figure out how to do community living better with the people we live with, and discover how Jesus and His teaching translates to the Puerto Rican people who live across the road from us and figure out how to improve the aft6er school homework program and formulate an opinion on Occupy Philly and and and…

let’s practice speaking more life, more meaningfully and more real. ly.

all you can hope or imagine. and then some.

last nite at our simple way potluck we had some directors come show us a documentary they made about a family from columbia – the main thrust of the movie was about these fumigations that americaland funds to try and nail cocaine fields in columbia [planes flying over and dumping poison] altho in a nutshell the poison kills all food crops completely and the coca plant which is the intended victim grows back in three months or is not harmed at all – many families are displaced and this movie follows one of them [you can catch more on www.giveusnames.org and the movie is called 'Leaving La Floresta' - if you're in the Philly area and want to organise a screening i imagine these guys will be super keen - did one for 20 to 30 people in the gathering last nite]

one of the things that struck me about this movie [and it was a great documentary] was that none of the guys involved had any formal training – they were just college students who wanted to change the world [as we all do then] and decided that the best way to do that was to start with one family [they have raised the 4000 dollars needed to get the family out of not-so-pleasant city circumstances they were forced into and back into a farming community where they will be able to live the kind of life they wanted for their family] and so they picked up all the filming and editing skills they needed along the way.

i suspect this theme is going to continue to be hammered out in these blogs of mine and readers may feel free to get pissed off and unfollow and feel judged and whatever, but the more people i meet over here who are making a significant difference, the more unamped i get with people whose lives seem to revolve simply around themselves, their friends and largely having a good time [and possibly trying not to be "too bad" whatever that means]. that just is not good enough.

i don’t want it to seem like americaland has all the people that are doing this and south africa doesn’t, because i know so many people back home who are living these kind of lives that are having a dramatic influence on one life, on a family’s life, on the life of a village or school or area… but this is directed at people both over here and over there who are just focused on the person in the mirror and the people they like hanging out with. it seems like hedonism is a chief idol worship of our times.

these college okes looked around and spotted something horribly wrong and said, “we have to do something about that” and then made a plan – it’s that easy. and i’m sure the process and so on wasn’t easy altho i imagine it’s pretty easy to rally involvement and money and resources around an idea as good as saving or uplifting lives. where people get trapped is when the conversation ends at the latest movie, computer game or sporting event… and the money ends at the latest holiday, or gadget or fixed investment… and the time ends at a 60 hour a week job with overtime so as to make the money for the gadget to watch the sporting event. and so on.

i’m not talking a gospel of works. because the gospel is works. not a focus on works. but works stemming out of an understanding of the love we have been shown. they are not two separate things. james clearly shows this. show me a faith that doesn’t express itself in works and i will show you a pile of raisins. okay that MAY be a paraphrase from the brett james version of the bible. but this is Jesus stuff. it is the matthew 25 sheep and goats parable lived out. not giving someone a handout so you stop feeling bad, but making a significant impact in the life of a person, of a family, of a community. doing something for one of the least of these. and then another.

ephesians 3.20 God is able to do more than all we can hope or imagine. if all we are hoping or imagining is more money and bigger toys then may God forgive us and have mercy on our lives. but the point of it is most of us hope and imagine way too little. if God is really saying that He is able to do more than all we can hope or imagine then we should be hoping and imagining bigger. raise the bar for God because He’s up for the challenge. if your bar is set at ‘have a good feeling life’ for example that is pretty low. helping a local family get their kid into and through university and you’re starting to talk. cut the aids rate of your community by thirty percent. higher still. imagine what great works God can do once people with more creative hoping and imagining start to put their lives in His hands and say “pick me!!”

and use your strengths – i think of my friends bruce and bex who i love to bits and who continue to amaze me with the incredible photography they take – see www.lovemadevisible.co.za – they took their gifting [or one of them - photography] and linked it to a passion and a hope and imagining and got people to donate towards a project aimed at getting clean water to a whole village [which you can read more about here]. a fairly simple thing but took some creativity and effort and time and money contribution and it was done.

possibly one of the best things about this whole hoping and imagining bigger and then living it out is that it is an excellent thing to do in community. so mobilise a friend or friends or even a whole community and do something together. just do something. life is too short not to. be the significance you want to see in the world.

not cheese but hope

This article first appeared in The Mercury on 27 June 2011 [and arrived in my inbox this morning]

Hope n. the feeling that events will turn out for the best.

I recently attended a small birthday party and Hope showed up. I wasn’t necessarily expecting her to be there, but that’s Hope for you; she always arrives when you least expect her.

She appeared suddenly and silently. It was almost as if she ‘spirited’ into being – like a character from a science fiction movie. She was very beautiful – radiant in fact – but some might have missed her arrival because here in South Africa we’re not that good at spotting Hope. Like beauty, she exists in the eyes of the beholder.

And this is the conundrum with Hope. On the one hand, she is a lady that would never force herself on anyone. On the other hand, we need her in order to survive. Without her, we quickly slip into despair and hopelessness and insightful thought, empathy and creative energy disappear. Hope is as essential to human life as oxygen. Starved of Hope we wither and die.

Hope presents herself in all kinds of situations. Sometimes she shows up at the simplest of events; the scene of a kind word spoken or a helping hand given. On this day, she arrived at a kid’s birthday party at a family home in Glenwood, Durban. A little girl was turning one and family and friends had been invited to join the celebration.

As with most first birthday parties, it came complete with balloons, decorations, juice and a sibling who was stung by a bee just as the cake arrived. It was all fairly typical children’s party fare – except for one or two things.

The little girl celebrating her first 12 months on earth didn’t begin life in this lovely Glenwood home, or even at nearby St. Augustine’s Hospital. She began life on a dirt road behind a clinic in Mayville. The parents hosting the party were her adoptive parents. The sibling who was stung by a bee was their first child – a biological son. The couple had decided when they married to have one child and adopt a second; a true vision of Hope for South Africa.

As I stood on a sunny balcony overlooking the festivities, I saw Hope working the crowd. She clapped and laughed as the once abandoned baby girl excitedly tore open her birthday gifts. She beamed at the cameras along with the Mum and Dad who proudly held their son and daughters hands. She spoke at length with couples both gay and straight, and sat cross-legged on a picnic blanket eating bowls of different colored sweets with different colored friends.

And as I stood there, I wondered if Hope would have felt as comfortable at the closing of the ANC Youth League’s elective conference as she did at this one year olds birthday party.

I wondered if she would agree with the popular view that the World Cup – also just one year old – was of no lasting benefit to our nation. I wondered if she was currently the house guest of nearly 50 million South Africans, or perhaps just a temporary lodger in a few homes. I wondered if she had chosen to come to this birthday party because she was tired of having the door slammed in her face at other South African homes.

And then I wondered; if Hope is essential for life, how do we live with Hope permanently? How do we make Hope the centre of the dialogue and not the peripheral side show? How do we ensure that she is not just wheeled out for special occasions like the 2010 World Cup and then put back in her box when life returns to normal? Is it possible that in the face of Apartheid style racism, xenophobic attacks, the ‘corrective rape’ of lesbian women, militaristic policing, poverty and rampant unemployment, Hope can survive – even triumph?

I believe it is, but as individuals we have to decide to welcome Hope into our homes, our offices, our places of worship and our community groups. We have to decide to seat her at the head of our family table, and make her the chairman of the board. We have to place her in the pulpit and behind the microphone and in front of the TV news cameras. She must become the starring act.

It was wonderful to see Hope again. She reminded me that South Africa is in fact working and that cohesion, tolerance and peace are being created; if not by politicians – certainly by citizens.

Flipside tip of the week:

Where there is Hope there is life. We must choose to foster Hope so that such parties become more common and those parties wishing to destroy Hope are brought down.

where i’ve been slash am

so my irresistibly fish blog has been a little bit quiet since we left south africa because i have not had a lot of inet time and when i have i have been blogging my experiences on my new thesimpleweigh.wordpress.com blog so if you are wanting to follow our adventures at the simple way community i suggest you subscribe to that blog where most of my writing will likely happen while we’re over here…

if you have not been following then here are three of the blogs i’ve written to help you get some idea of what we’re up to – absolutely loving it but it is a completely different experience to anything i’ve ever done before and so still getting used to it and settling in here…

http://thesimpleweigh.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/the-way-of-the-simple-way

http://thesimpleweigh.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/day-1-pretty-in-tents-carpet-burns-and-street-buzz

http://thesimpleweigh.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/being-part-of-the-blind-side

“the wicketkeeper was asleep!” – yes, you’re right…. literally!

i didn’t watch a lot of the South Africa/India match because i was busy helping my friend make a short film and then mc’ing a charity event, and so was following mostly on radio and cricinfo, but i did get to see the start of the India innings where Sehwag glanced a ball behind him between the keep and first slip and the keeper didn’t even move – it was crazy bizarre cos it seemed like a straightforward catch but he literally just stood still… that is until i read this article…

Kolkata – Morné van Wyk didn’t just appear to be asleep behind the stumps in South Africa’s thrilling victory over India last Saturday – he was!

Confusing a sleeping pill for a vitamin pill Morne van Wyk gobbled one up before the game and was literally fighting to stay awake. Fortunately we won the game, altho that miss could have been costly [altho i had Sehwag in my fantasy dream league team so he scored a bit AND we won which is the way to go] but it wasn’t and so the whole thing is pretty funny… and probably a lot easier to believe than when shane warne got bust for drugs and claimed his mom gave them to him a few years ago…

you can read the rest of the story here…

get to know your south african musos, part nick groves [pt ii]

my interview with local-born muso nick groves continues…

Q:In the one track i listened to i’m pretty sure i heard some white-man-rap? guest artist or mister nick groves branching out? and where’d that come from? [i was secretly pretty impressed]

A: …I’ve always enjoyed poetry – mostly at high school – song writing flows out of that but rap is the modern day poem. (After all – it an abbreviation for Rhythm And Poetry). What got me exited about rap recently was that it allows you the ability to express and explore an issue or theme in a deeper way than songwriting, I think the rhyme and the space gives the hearer a feeling like he is going on a journey, and thats why I think its one of the most popular genres out there, and it doesn’t have to be all “GANGSTA” to be rap. Think of Eminem’s “lose yourself” or some Lily Allen, JayZ, Linkin Park- it really allows you to feel whats being said- its almost like a good preach that has the ability to transport you to a new emotion or thought.

The song you have in mind is probably the track “Rise”- I got into a rap groove as I had a week earlier done my first rap song for fun, and that song just came out of me.

For me that song was really personal – I’ve been going through a really difficult time lately- probably the worst time of my life. My dad is currently lying in Hospice, in the last stages of bone cancer; I tried to help out a dude who was in need and got burnt; and I decided to look at the perseverance of Jesus for some inspiration. I might do some more sometime- the song gave me a good way to get everything off my chest. It’s my first shot at it, watch this space.

Q:what are your thoughts/feelings when it comes to worship music? quite a general question but i imagine when someone hears ‘worship music’ they think ‘ah the 30 minute music time in the church’ – do you think it’s bigger than that at all? what makes music worship-full?

A: Well I think its fair to equate “worship music” with church music, but it is bigger than that and like you say – the big question is: “Is this worship-full?” I think generally worship music will always help us in the cause of making God bigger and ourselves smaller in our hearts and minds – the whole John the Baptist thing “He must increase, I must decrease”. The call of scripture is “O magnify the Lord”. So I would say real “worship-full” worship music always will help us aim in this direction. The biggest factor for me is the work of The Holy Spirit – He enables us to worship God, He loves to help us exalt Jesus. The bible says “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by The Spirit”- we need to depend on Him to help us to make our worship to God authentic and powerful, enabling us to get caught up with who God is, no matter what situation we are in.

Q:And when it comes to your music, what would you say is the groven factor? what sets your music apart from other peoples – ie why should people listen to yours? or what aspect of it do you think or hope will appeal to people?

A: At the moment, Im still jumping around into different genres- from the worship stuff to the rap and more recently the instrumentals. So in that regard, I haven’t really stuck into one type of style yet, and I’m far from doing my best work. But I hope my “X factor” its will be that what I create influences people in a positive way, and at best – brings people into a fresh perspective of who God is. I hope that what I create will always be honest about life and God’s involvement in it. Someone said once that a friend is made when you end up saying, “what, you too? I thought I was the only one!” and sometimes, when musicians are honest in their work, that kind of connection can be made with the listener.

Q:two more questions, one music related, who or what would you say your influences are when it comes to writing a new song? other bands or experiences?

A: I would say its more important as a musician to write from experience simply because its always going to make your art more “younique” and thats what people want to hear- but at the same time, I always get inspiration from what guys are doing – from the creativity of a 3 piece band like “Future of Forestry” to the musical genius of “MuteMath”. I always look for something honest and excellent that leaves you feeling what the artist is saying.

In a church setting, the creativity and expression of a guy like Matt Redman has been massive on my life. He is still one of my greatest heros. Lyrically a guy like Matt Kearney is huge, Mute Math are also great lyrically.
But the real beauty is releasing something beautiful through a personal experience. Nothing can top that. We are all originals and limited editions. Thats where the real creativity lies.

Q:and then lastly, what is your understanding of the church? and where do you see the role of music as a part of that, if at all?

A: Friedrich Nietzsche, a pioneer of atheism was quoted saying: “They would have to sing better songs for me to learn to have faith in their Redeemer”— Its always stuck with me.

I think the church (when I say this, I mean something bigger than a Sunday gathering) has yet to come into a place of prominence in creativity in the world where people can peer in and see amazing creativity reflecting who God is- the most creative being in the world. We’ve seen it here and ther (a lot of American christian artists like Kari Jobe/Jesus Culture are now topping even secular charts!) Guys like Phil Keaggy have been pointed to as the the greatest guitarist in the world. There must be more on the way.

Its sad to think that Nietzsche wrote off Christianity based on the lack of creativity he saw. Imagine what the world would have been like if he saw something different.

And when it comes to Sundays: if the lyrics and music doesn’t point to the excellence and wonder of God, then its time to gather all the creative people and ask God to revive us again that we might reflect the beauty of the one who made everything, and loves everyone.

[thankx so much Nick - to hear the music behind the man head over to www.facebook.com/pages/nick-groves/28272426239 and please pass the link on]

get to know your south african musos, part nick groves [pt i]

i am privileged to be friends with a lot of really talented people, especially in the area of music, and was recently inspired to write a series of blogs that showcase some of these people and their talent so that more people can hear what they are producing – this will take the form of a number of interviews with links provided so that you can go and check them out and first up is a guy i like to call nick groves (being his name and all) – i met nick thru my good buddy and tag team partner sean du toit and he has led the worship sessions on a number of camps i have spoken on…

Q:So Nick, i know you used to be in the water industry in somerset west, south africa (i know there’s a water industry in somerset west?) running your own company, but it’s been a little while so tell us where are you these days and what are you involved with?

A:In 2006 me and Beks were just married a few months, and we were invited to join our mutual friend Sean Du Toit in his youthwork “Primal” that was still in its infancy. I’d been working as a sales representative for H2o- marketing water purifiers and coolers since Dec 1999, and so the move from Muizenberg to Somerset West meant a change in work, as the travel would have been too much. Some doors opened and used the profits of the sale of my house to start up my own H2o branch- servicing Paarl and Somerset West. So since then we have been growing this baby business of ours – I suppose now it’s become a naughty teenager- full of challenges and growing pains, its a lot of fun and hard work, but what I love most is seeing it touch and enrich peoples lives.

The flip side to this coin is that I get the time to do my “real job”- writing songs, arranging music, learning more of how the recording programs work etc.

We are currently part of The Bay Community Church in Muizenberg- involved in music, and leading a small home group in Somerset West. This year my wife and I decided to pursue what we love (Beks loves photography) and so we try give our time after work to develop our skills in these areas.

Every now and then I get a chance to contribute to whats happening in New Gens youth work “Urban Liberty”- its always great to see what God is doing in other streams. They are an exciting bunch of people on a mission to make an impact.

Q: I’ve known you for a decent amount of time and generally in the context of music – where do you think your interest of music comes from and how did you get started in playing and singing?

A: I had private classical guitar lessons at primary school level- it only lasted a little over a year, as we could afford it. I then discovered in grade 7 that it was actually cool to play guitar! [even more so around the girls;) ]. But it was only when I was nearing the end of high school that I took it up again, started singing and playing at home groups and youth meetings. That was the start of becoming a worship leader for me.

Q:when you’re not peddling water or music’ing, what other interests does mister groves have? hobbies? pastimes? sport? cooking?

A: Lately i’ve taken up running- I have successfully found the flattest route in heldervue- a 5km that always kills me. Ive also got into gym-ing a bit but my favourite is always either a game of tennis or at best a surf trip – either JBay or Elands Bay. I also enjoy cooking, but I’m not a fanatic about that.

Q:what bands or artists do you enjoy listening to?

A:Like most, I would say there is a variety depending on what Im doing, but i’d prob rank my current favourites 1-5 as follows:

1. Future of Forestry
2. DubFx
3. Vusi Mahlasela
4. Mumford & Sons
5. Radiohead

Q:In recent times you’ve been writing songs and offering them to people to listen to, what is your plan at the moment in terms of the music scene, or i guess what is your dream scenario?

A:Musicians these days live in a privileged time where you can upload a song and in an instant you can touch numbers of people. I remember when I did my first 3 track album- I sold 100 copies and I was over the moon. But nowdays people don’t have to pay to listen to you, and it doesn’t cost much to run your own home studio – so its an ideal win-win situation: Artists get to create and release their work at little cost, and can reach many people for free. Thanks facebook

I suppose the dream of any creative person is for their craft to be seen or heard- the purpose of creating for me is about sharing. My dream is to share a moment or an experience. My greatest goal in terms of writing songs is to be able to get people to feel the message of a song, instead of hearing it.

At the moment my only plan is to keep creating music that people can have for free, and see the group of people it reaches grow. Life at the moment limits me in this area – but we are looking to soon be selling our business, and who knows what life would look like after that? The dream for me is not just music though, I want to be a part of a group of creative group who’s craft affects people in a positive way – it’s amazing how a song or any other work of art has an ability to lift people. I just love seeing the creative do that.

to read the rest of this interview simply click here

south africa, our country

Awesome SA is a site dedicated to the good news of what happens in South Africa that we seldom get to read about in the newspapers or watch in the news – they send out regular newsletters with testimonies of south africans living and loving large and helping make this nation the thing it truly can be – i encourage you to get connected

‘Awesome SA is about encouraging South Africans to positively influence the future.’

Find out more about us on www.awesomesa.co.za

in their latest newsletter they included a number of encouraging links and i just wanted to share two of them with you – an open letter of thankx so bafana bafana:

http://blogs.sport24.co.za/mspr1nt/an-open-letter-of-thanks-to-bafana

and this letter by Shari Cohen, an international development worker in the public sector who wrote this in the publication she writes for back home – i will include one paragraph to whet your appetite but go read the whole thing:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shari-cohen/south-africa-rolls-out-th_b_611802.html

“So, if South Africa accomplishes nothing more on the playing field, it will still have won as a host country. I am a cynic, no doubt about that. And yet I have to admit, I’m a little teary just writing this because I leave for home next weekend and I will be leaving a little piece of myself here in South Africa. I just hope I have learned enough to bring back a little piece of Ubuntu to my homeland, where perhaps with a little caring and a little water, it will take root as naturally as it does here, in the cradle of civilization. It’s funny, many people in America still ask me, “are the people in Africa very primitive?” Yes, I know, amazing someone could ask that but they do. And when they do, I usually explain that living in a mud hut does not make one primitive, however, allowing kids to sell drugs to other kids and engage in drive-by killings — isn’t that primitive behavior? I think it is. When I think of Ubuntu and my recent experiences here, I think America has much to learn from Africa in general, in terms of living as a larger village; and as human beings who are all interconnected with each other, each of us having an affect on our brothers and sisters.

As the 2010 Cup slogan goes, “Feel it. It is here.” Well, I have felt it, because I am here. Thank you South Africa, for giving me this unexpected gift. I am humbled.”

[and by one i clearly mean two]

it is here less

so it’s finally over

i remember when it was announced that south africa would be hosting the soccer world cup and countdowns of four years or more and then 300 days and finally a few weeks and then it was tomorrow…

we missed a large portion of the group games due to being on a namibia namrocking trip but we got to watch the opening ceremony and game in a restaurant called amazink in kayamandi township [where i used to live before i got married] with a completely diverse crowd with such spirit and life which was a complete vibe

we missed south africa/uruguay (namibia) but got back in time to watch a heartbreakingly close SA/french game which at half time looked headed towards the 4-0 we needed to progress – then my buddy dunc took me to watch netherlands/cameroon live at the cape town stadium, after watching slovakia take italy out at a packed quay 4 complete with orange saturated vibe in the afternoon before the game

and then tbV, Reegs, Muscle-John and myself did the fan walk which was a complete crazy exciting buzz (yes, and vibe|) and watched netherlands take out uruguay at on broadway

and finally back to amazink for the final with some okes from enGAGE for what i thort was a pretty awful game of soccer and reffing (and the third worst one i watched after france/uruguay and brazil/portugal) and afterwards really thort they should have given the cup to germany or just maybe kept it til the next cup – way too much acting on both sides, some questionable reffing decisions (netherlands missed out on two corners at least) and yellow carding and apart from a few exciting moments and a decent goal from spain, a pretty boring affair after some really quality games leading up to it

south africa proved we can host and did an incredible job which i think the whole world is pretty much agreed on

and so far no sounds of the feared xenophobia so hoping and praying that the hoping and praying has paid off – so much good in terms of unity, bringing people together and nation spirit has happened it would be tragic to lose that now

so well done south africa – brilliant job and bafana bafana you did us proud (agonising equalising goal from mexico on that first nite)

but, having enjoyed it quite a lot, and enjoyed hanging with people, i am relieved and ready for it to be done now

too much worship not directed at or near God – too much focus away from the things in life that count – way too much distraction

“it’s life Jim, but not as we know it” [dr bones, star trek]

aaaaaand….break.

1221 – if good be a verb

do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good

i really struggle to ‘get’ how people have such issues with Jesus-following when the basics of what it is all about is gems like that – love God, love people, look after orphans and widows, forgive those who wrong you, look after the land you’ve been given, share this love message…

i do sadly understand how people can have issues with christians and a lot of the things they have done in the name of religion or Jesus or the church, but the message itself – reminds me of the statement kleinfrans made – the God i believe in is not the God you don’t believe in – if more people just read the bible and understood the basics of Jesus-following instead of reading christians it might be a completely different story

but i love that verse – it comes from romans 12.21 and was one of the verses that was really meaningful to me when i was doing my dts (discipleship training school) in holland and then outreach in malawi in 2000 – we reduced it to a 1221 code between three of us in the team so that if someone was being dumb or christian (as opposed to Christ-following, oh that there wasn’t a difference!) one of us would mention it or subtly write it into the ground with a stick and the other person would see it and be reminded – fight evil by gooding it to death

i love the concept, but it is one of my biggest struggles to live out consistently – my inherent sense of ‘justice’ (and it’s a warped sinful idea of justice that is fed heavily by pride) makes me want to return evil for evil – tit for tat, eye for eye, tooth for tooth

but as gandhi said ‘an eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind’ and it’s true – revenge feeds revenge – there is no natural end to it – and so when someone pushes into the line of traffic i’ve been sitting in for twenty minutes, or a unicorn player hacks one of my friends in a hockey match, or or or… my response needs to be good

then, in the same passage, just for me i think, paul sets it out like this, ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ (12.20)

i have often offered to skip the first two steps and go directly to pouring the burning coals on the person’s head, but God has never taken me up on it – it was Jesus’ revolutionary love that disarmed people – when most of us would be shouting curses as the crowd nailed us literally or metaphorically to the cross, Jesus responds with ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’

this is powerful, powerful stuff. i firmly believe that if Christ-followers in south africa could really start living the 1221 we could transform this country cos it would catch on. i also firmly believe that if all christians in South Africa could become Christ-followers… south africa would be unrecognisable in months!

how about it? pick it up for just this week for starters and see how it goes – Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good!