a kick up the backside

Monday, July 03, 2006

Something that I want to get down before the freshness of it leaves my poor little head is something that struck home while we were in Central Australia (in particular at Yuendumu, the Aboriginal community we stayed in).
It is the way in which our culture tends to turn everything into an egocentric affair. Western ideals are more often than not about the individual. Individual achievement...individual gain...individual faith?

Now don't get me wrong. I believe deeply in having a highly personal relationship with God. God is relational in the deepest sense, and we are invited into a intimate relationship with Him...I love that.
What I'm talking about, and some of what came up on the trip was this westernised individual perspective in relation to Sin and social justice.

Social Justice is a term that gets chucked about a lot. Especially in 'christian' circles, but a lot of what goes on is all talk and no action. I definately am guilty of this, and probably will continue to be. But social justice is something I think that needs to be taken a lot more seriously.
This drive for personal gain, personal happiness and personal conviction which our culture percieves as most important has also by the look of it crept into our faith. This isn't all bad. But having this overly personal view rammed down our throats has crippled a lot of the love that we are called to.

Sin being anything that falls short of what God requires, is not only limited to 'personal sin', but also involves all forms of injustice... as one of the Guys put it...

Since when has homosexuality, abortion and pre-maritial sex become a bigger issue as 'sins' to us in the western church than poverty, world hunger and inequality?

Way to make you think.

I'm not sure what exactly I'm trying to get across, but it's a bit of a kick up the backside to realise that your Christianity and your fight against sin cannot simply be a personal thing.

Anyone else with more ideas...help me out!

Wow Han - good posting! Couldn't agree more wholeheartedly. So tell me Hannah, what does this look like for you practically in your life? How do you stop this from being an intellectual exercise in criticism (constructive criticism, but criticism nevertheless), and start being an out-working of your faith?

(PS: I don't know the answers)

You ask good questions. Practically for me is the realisation that even if things are peachy between me and God...even if I'm feeling great about what God is doing in MY life that isn't enough. That there is injustice out there which if I am not fighting I must be adding to. Be it conciously or not. That's something pretty big and I'm trying to come to terms with what it means on an everyday level for me. A lot of it I assume goes back to the simple (or maybe not so simple) Love the Lord your God etc..and love your neighbour as yourself.
When we're honest, I highly doubt that anyone out there is consistently living that...but if everything hangs on those two commands...we're not going to get anywhere if we don't start trying in everything to live...loving with reckless abandon. Not expecting anything in return.

Social Justice...is such a huge problem. Something that to me seems like I wouldn't know where to start. Probably the hardest thing for those of us who live comfortable lives in a safe country is to even understand what kind of desperate need is out there. And being honest I don't know where to start to fight that. But it has to be fought.

I'd hate for this to be left as a series of challenging thoughts and that's all.

What do you think?
How to attack this?

Hi Hannah

I realise this post is well old by now so maybe you won't even see this... but yeah.

I've been hooked by the blog reading bug, and i found yours off bec's. They seem kinda special and personal things... so I feel a little wierd about it all. Hope i'm not an unwelcome guest.

Really like this thing. The same questions kill me every day i stop to think about it... and I'm ashamed to say I don't stop and think about it much... mostly because it kills me when i do.

Sometimes it seems like you have to have a PHD in everything and be a 20 year old with 30 years community service experience to be able to make a difference... but that can't possibly be true can it? My friend james's cousin was running his own aid agency at 20. Young australian of the year 3ish years ago. Makes me wonder what I'm doing!

If you find any good answers, please let me know!

Okay bye now.

Tim

P.S. my verifcation word was skteei. I love that bit.

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Monday, July 03, 2006