My New Home

Here's a video of where I am staying now, for anyone who is curious.  I'm enjoying it so far!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=104016656318334&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=752838503691&oid=104016656318334

Safe

"All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely.  But dear children, do not tiptoe.  Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don't tiptoe."

I put this quote (from The Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claiborne) as my Facebook status a couple months ago because it resonated deeply within me.  Growing up in Colombia, safety was always an issue.  We were warned to maintain a low profile, not draw attention to ourselves, and not go to certain parts of town.  From a young age I felt frustrated with the sensation of walking on eggshells-of treading carefully on the ground God had called us to for fear of the consequences of our presence.  I had forgotten that sensation, in my comfortable eight years in the United States.  Now, as an adult it’s all coming back to me.  Countless times before coming to South Africa, people asked me if it was safe for me to go live in a township.  Even living here people ask me all the time why I would choose to live here and warn me of the danger: don’t walk here, don’t go there.  Not that I should throw caution to the wind and wander around the township at night with dollar bills sticking out of my pockets, but I have reached the point where I no longer want to reassure people that I am safe.  Because I am not.  I cannot guarantee that someone will not see where I live and decide that because I am a rich white person I am a good target.  Then again, I couldn’t guarantee that in Greensboro, or in Miami, or in Toronto.  When did Jesus ever tell us that following Him was going to be safe?  It wasn’t safe for John the Baptist, for Paul, for Peter, for Stephen, or for countless martyrs throughout the years.  It wasn’t even safe for Him.  Why would I be any different?  Why should I spend my life seeking comfort and security and call it God’s blessing, when the very example of my Savior tells me otherwise? 

Erwin McManus, in his book The Barbarian Way, says, “Instead of finding confidence to live as we should regardless of our circumstances, we…choose the path of least resistance, least difficulty, least sacrifice.  Instead of concluding it is best to be wherever God wants us to be, we have decided that wherever it is best for us to be is where God wants us.  Actually, God’s will for us is less about our comfort than it is about our contribution.  God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance.  God created you so that your life would count…”

No, dear friends, I do not have a death wish; I kinda want to live for quite a bit longer, and this is not an indictment against anyone who is living “comfortably.”  God gives us all different paths to follow, and I do not claim to have found my own, much less a prescription for anyone else’s.  All I know is that I don’t want to have a “safe” faith.  I don’t want to tiptoe carefully through life.  I want to dive into whatever God has for me, though the thought scares me to no end and I find it easier said than done.  I want to follow Jesus, whether He leads me to suburbia, USA or the ghettos and slums of the world; whether I live for 100 years or 30.  I don’t want to choose safety over significance.  I don’t want to arrive at death at a ripe old age and say, “well, at least my life was safe.”  I want to get there, look back on my life, and say, “It mattered!  It mattered that I lived!  It mattered how I lived!”  God, give me the courage.