Building a Future That is Not Your Own OR, "Yes, We Have NO Bananas"

Did you know the banana you eat is in danger?   

One type of banana, the Cavendish, dominates the global market.  95% of the N American market consumes the Cavendish banana and a disease that could wipe it out threatens it.  That’s the problem with the commercialization of fruit.  Genetic diversity is sacrificed for any type that will maximize productivity, durability, & profit.  If that disease does take hold, goodbye Cavendish.  Will there be a ‘hello’ to a new type?   Perhaps, but it won’t come easy, or fast.

I was fascinated as I listened to a CBC documentary and further watched an (unlinked) episode by David Suzuki, on the effort it takes to produce a new variety of banana (or ANY fruit/vegetable).  In the case of the banana, it can take up to 10 years of experimentation, testing, failing, and waiting for a new variety to be produced.  Some people will work on these efforts and never see the ‘fruit’ of their labour.

Got me thinking: If I see a need for change, exactly how far ahead am I ready to commit myself?

We as leaders read all the time about ‘change’.  However, we usually have the expectation that the time window is months and at most a few years.

 

But 10 Years?

What if what you want to accomplish (and I think here especially about social change) is way out there?  Would you be ready to start towards something you might never see finish?  Other cultures and generations of the past seemed to be able to think further down the road than we do now in the Western world.  They thought generationally, often sacrificing their own comfort and future for the sake of the next generation(s).  Others fought against social justice issues for decades before seeing any change.  Think of the 40 years William Wilberforce battled entrenched slavery in England. 

Can significant change happen if it is trapped in the cultural expectation of “7 steps to…” or “40 days of…”?

For real, systemic change to occur I believe it  will take: 

• A conviction that change must occur.
• A decision that this is worth giving your life to implement.
• A readiness to set aside a lot of other short term, more immediately satisfying efforts to give attention to it.
• An ability to see life beyond today, tomorrow or even the next decade. 
• A sense of the ‘rightness’ of what you are committing to do.
• A readiness to unselfishly & deliberately hand over your ‘project’ because you are OK being a prophet of a future that is not your own.

Harv Matchullis

Designer, Developer, Dreamer, Devoted to things that matter.

A Second Choice Life

We all know the “you can be anything you want to be” mantra of many parents is patently false.  Sounds empowering.  The brute reality is it can set kids up for disappointment and failure. 

However, you have grown out of it, right?  Maturity has set in and tempered expectations and dreams. Realism now rules.  You have settled in with contentment. 

Not for a lot of us.

Either spurred on by a leadership culture that presses us to grander visions, or our own deeply personal drive for the next thing, many of us develop scenarios and plans to reach toward our preferred life.  We then became heavily invested in that future.  It becomes us.  Our identity and even our sense of fulfillment, legacy or calling are tied into that life becoming reality.

What if it doesn’t?  What if your first choice of a life is derailed or unattainable?



What if you are now living a second choice life?

It’s happened to me.  I pursued a dream  (a God-given dream at that) to develop a ministry to international teams.  Left Canada for Kuwait in 2009.  Came back in 2010 crushed.  The life I now live isn’t what I planned.  It’s good, but there is a nagging sense that an ‘other’ life has eluded me.  The prospects of ever re-engaging it are fading.

This experience is shared by millions.  Refugees, entrepeneurs, modern day slaves, leaders and ordinary people who dare to dream.  What will we do in our second choice lives?

The ancient character Joseph walked this same path. His story (Genesis 37 & 39) has inspired me toward first choice living in a second choice life.  Josephs’ first choice life with his father & brothers was interrupted when he was sold into slavery.  Definitely a second choice life!  Somehow, he chose to live well and with integrity in his new context.  In so doing, he prospered.  Incidentally so did entire nations of people at the time and down the historical line!  Who knows the impact of first choice living in your second choice life?

Though your first choice life may have been taken away from you, the power to demonstrate and enjoy first choice living can never be taken.

It could be that God has made a 'first choice' life for you whether you believe it or not.

Carpe diem.  It’s all you have.

Getting Outside the Camp

The experiential reality of the nomadic leader is non-conformist.  They are wanderers and often seen as a bit ‘outside the camp’.  Their experience, thinking and perceptions typically are unconventional.  That is in part because they have eyes open to things beyond their current context.  Not all these wanderers are lost (thanks for the affirmation J R Tolkien!).  Nor are they unstable leaders.  For them, clarity and direction often comes while in a ‘wandering’ state.  Neuroscience affirms this.  We often have to stop thinking about the thing we need to think about in order to let our brains wander.  It’s during those times when our brains are released to make the kinds of connections that eventually lead to creative thought, clarity and ‘aha’ moments. 

Check out http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/neuroscience-relaxing-makes-you-more-creative.html

as a brief introduction to the benefits of 'wandering' for the brain .

I serve as a leader in (and from) an environment where not only are we outside the camp, but we seek  & serve others also who are not part of the mainstream.  Encompass Partnerships is a collaborative I lead that acknowledges society in general, and unfortunately often my own Christian community, have frequently ignored the needs of the 'others' who are not like us.  Collectively we have an ingrained tendency to be ‘campy’, settling into a great life with those who are like us. 

Encompass Partnerships' reason for existence is to collaborate with individuals, agencies and churches who have a commitment to go to the edge of society where the transforming presence, power and abundance through Jesus Christ isn’t yet evident. We have a profound belief that no one is ever to be left out of experiencing the love of God through Jesus.  On the ground, it means we act as nomadic, wandering leaders, agencies and churches.  We wander to the edge.  We go outside the camp.  As we do so, our minds change.  New connections are made in both the brain and the soul.  This causes us to see and feel things differently than those in the camp.

Jesus Christ, who inspires and leads all we do, was definitely outside the camp: 

He was born outside the normal human process.  This also resulted in a ‘outside the camp’ family vis-a-vis cultural expectations.  Jesus positioned Himself outside the camp of the religious system of the day.  Interestingly God Himself had instituted this system.  However that system had not only overdeveloped beyond God’s intentions,  but those in it failed to see what (Whom) it was actually pointing to.  There’s a lesson here for our current institution of the church.

Jesus was crucified outside the city.  Today, His followers are predominantly outside the camp of mainstream thought, morality & philosophy worldwide.  

Perhaps most profoundly, Jesus’ loves to walk with those who are considered outside the camp of the broader society.   The oppressed, the marginalized, the socially outcast, the struggling ‘foreigner’.

There’s good reason to be nomadic.  Perhaps you need to wander a bit from your own conventional thinking or well-established theology.  Let the Creator of ALL humankind make some new brain and soul connections.

Get out of where you are.  Go outside the comfy camp of your church or suburb or apartment. Do a walkabout.  See.  Smell.  Taste.  Touch.  Feel.  

“Not all who wander are lost”.  In fact, by doing so you may just find Him there, outside the camp.

Walking Broken With the Broken

There’s a pervasive patronizing, we-they, holier than thou, superiority complex that we ALL succumb to in relation to other people.  There is always someone worse off than we are, more inferior to us, or in some way 'less' than we are. If you choose to say this does not characterize you, then you are clearly blind and patently dishonest.

Canada’s recent coming-to-grips with its residential school past is a gross historical example of this characteristic in play.  However, that’s too big for many of us to relate to.  Let’s get closer to home.  Street level.

Around you are:

• people from another culture, perhaps a culture that brings up very negative emotions or beliefs for you 
• addicts – people who perhaps in your mind just can’t get it together 
• homeless & poor people who somehow lost their grip on life skills and the disciplines to ‘make it’ 
• those with a mental illness, who are not in touch with (your) reality 
• people trapped in or celebrating a lifestyle you fundamentally think is wrong 
• someone who hates your religion/faith or who just deeply questions everything

In some way, they are broken.  But so are you!  And this latter fact is the one most lost on us in relation to the rest of society. It affects our ability to identify, love and have compassion.

Somehow, we as Christians have come to believe that we have the solution to the world.  Of course it is true that surrender to and following the person of Jesus is the Solution.  He came to give us abundant and meaningful living both now and for eternity.  But in believing in that solution, we Christians often and unfortunately accompany it with a perverse and inaccurate sense that we are now whole.  Better than others.  That subtle lie implies the other person is not whole and therefore somehow is less than us.  It results in a patronizing attitude toward their 'needs'.  Worse, it breeds a judgemental spirit.

What if we were to take the more theologically accurate and very human perspective that we ourselves are broken and walk with the other in their brokenness?  We are saved by grace and not by anything we have done.  Daily we (well, maybe just me) struggle with elements of our brokenness. So in a sense we are both beggars looking for food.  Both sojourners looking for a destination.  Both imperfect people seeking wholeness.  Both humbly walking together knowing we need each other and are in need of the great Other.

 What might this do for us – the Church?

• It would release us from a BA (‘believers arrogance")
• It would make us more patient and accepting of the brokenness that is all around us 
•  It would make us more human 
• It would help us see that our walking with the broken is actually our calling 
• It would save us from classifying brokenness.  We are ALL broken and in need of healing and wholeness. (Have you ever noticed that the church has ‘white collar’ sins that don’t get the same focus and judgement as other sins??)

I am no saint in this.  It’s a fresh lesson I am learning as I walk with someone affected by addictions.  They are broken.  Other addicts are broken.  It has been so heartbreaking to watch.  BUT the process (AA) has brought me face to face with my own brokenness and need for the Saviours' grace and power to change.  One key to the recovery of these addicts is not judgement of their condition or rescuing them with the good intentions of money or promises or enabling actions, but the acceptance of others in the program who also admitted they were broken.  That created camaraderie, a fellowship, a common humanity.  They all know they struggle, and it created a context in which restoration could happen. 

Restoration and salvation occurs in a context of loving acceptance.   

 You will NEVER argue, browbeat or rationalize someone into faith in Jesus.  You certainly won’t by placing yourself above them.  But it just might happen if you come alongside, as a fellow broken human to demonstrate the hope you have in Jesus and the frailty you also possess as a human.

In the context of teaching a young leader to avoid the senselessness and the damage excessive wordiness and theological condescension will inflict, the apostle Paul (2 Timothy 2) went on to say to Timothy that he should:

• Stop trying to quarrel your way to helping someone believe 
• Be kind to everyone
• Be patient with difficult people 
• Teach gently & effectively because “perhaps” God will change their hearts

Did you get that last bullet?  “Perhaps”.  You see it isn’t up to us to change someone.  It’s up to God Himself.  Even then, there is no guarantee.  “Perhaps” God will change them.  Until that happens:

Walk as the broken with the broken

Demonstrate and describe the Saviour

Honour the  free choice of the person

Continue the walk no matter their choice..."Perhaps"

Surrender yourself and them to the will and power of God.

Walk as the broken with the broken