Africa Day 9
Just a few more days to go. Still in Nairobi. On day 8, we ministered in a dirt floored, tin-roofed church made of sticks next to a huge garbage dump. Through the windows of the church we could see people climbing over the garbage looking for food and something to sell to make a little money.
Today I found myself in the third-floor ball room of a fancy shopping mall (think a much smaller version of the Galleria for my Houston friends) sitting on a panel discussing how to ‘Increase Your Capacity’ in front of a group of well-dressed Kenyan pastors and business people; some who are successful and many who are just starting out. Most are Christian.
Too much contrast. The only thing that connected these two experiences was Jesus. Or so I thought.
The conference is organized and hosted by a church in Nairobi. The pastor of the church is a friend of Dennis. The conference is intended to be both an outreach to young, unbelieving, business men and women in Nairobi, as well as Christian men and women who are looking for ways to grow their businesses and network with other business people. For the first two days of the conference a well-known christian motivational speaker will speak for about an hour on the topic of ‘increasing your capacity’, followed about an hour of questions directed to a panel of ‘experts’. The panel yesterday consisted of the motivational speaker; a woman who is a local, well-known radio personality; Michele, one of my team members; and me. Then, at 5:30 PM the conference meets for worship and ministry by Dennis and the team.
The first day of the conference began with the motivational speaker who is well-known all over East Africa. He was a very good speaker; funny, engaging, with some wisdom to impart. I gathered he does a lot of work for the UN here. He used a few passages of scripture, but his main message was that you can do more, be more, and have everything that you want if you will just increase your capacity for wealth and prosperity. You need to be transformed, work harder at self-improvement, have big goals and visions, and don’t settle for the status quo. He used the example of a butterfly. The butterfly passes through the stages of an egg, to a larvae, to a pupa, to a butterfly (I might not have the order exactly correct, but you get the point). It is not enough, he said, to be the best egg or best larvae you can be. You need to continuously transform yourself from one ‘form’ to the other. This, he said, is the pathway to a life of prosperity, and by implication, fulfillment. I guess I would summarize his message as “be all that you can be; you are the captain of your own destiny”.
I am struggling with what I am writing. I want to fairly record the message of this man. I am an American, not an African. I don’t know what it is like to lift myself out of deep poverty. I don’t have an African mind. But having said all that, his message deeply disturbed me. He mentioned God, but primarily as an adjunct to what we (men and women) needed to do in our power to achieve prosperity for ourselves. “He is a good God, isn’t He? He loves His children and wants to give us good things, doesn’t He? So it is ok to work hard for the good things in life, because God wants us to have them, right? God, I will work hard, get training from the management experts, go after my dream with energy and passion. And if I do this, I will be successful because that is what you want for your children.” That was the message I heard.
It is true that God does not mind when we have good things. Prosperity, in and of itself, is not a bad thing (I think. Maybe that is just a way for a rich American to justify himself). Paul does not say “money is the root of all evil”. He says “the love of money is a root of all evil”. But we cross the line, and it can be a fine line, when we make prosperity, money, power, success, accomplishments, or anything else our ultimate concern, emphasis on ultimate. Because your ultimate concern is the thing you worship. Every human being worships. The question is “what will you worship”. When we are told “you can increase your capacity”, as it was ‘preached’ at this conference, we are worshiping ourselves. We put ourselves behind the wheel of the control room of our lives. We have bought into the lie: “I will totally fulfill you but you must totally surrender to me”. The lie? That ultimate thing, unless it is Jesus, will not only not totally fulfill you, but it will kill you. If not physically, then at least spiritually and emotionally.
God does not mind prosperity for His children. But, first God. I surrender to you Jesus. You are Lord. I will follow you. And if it leads to physical prosperity, great. If it does not, that’s ok also. You are much more valuable than gold and precious stones. Jesus, you are the treasure.
How many of us really believe that, really make that the foundation of our lives? I will give it all up for you, Jesus if you call me to. That is radical Christianity. Or, I should say, that is the Christianity of Jesus. Material prosperity might be a part of that and it might not. No matter. Jesus is the only way to an exciting, powerful, amazing, abundant life. It will be a life of trial and difficulty. But it will be a deep, fulfilling life; a life of meaning and substance. It will be life worth living. It will be the life we were created by God to have.
The day challenged and grieved me. My spirit was grieved, partly because of what he was saying and how it was being received in the church (generally positively), and partly because I saw some of what he was saying in me. That evening we had a worship service and Dennis talked. As we were worshiping, jumping up and down, putting our hands in the air, and telling Jesus that He was Lord, He was the only thing in our lives worth worshiping, He was King, etc. I kept thinking of the morning’s message about self-sufficiency and self-worship. Is it true that underneath that evening’s passion for Jesus there sits a big, fat lie, a profound hypocrisy? This is probably not the case for everyone. Some really do worship Jesus at every level. But what about the majority? What about me? Is this lie rooted deeply in the heart of the Church in most of the world? Perhaps this is what the journey of sanctification, the journey toward holiness, is all about? Rooting out the lie in our hearts and replacing it with the truth “Jesus is our all in all”, and really believing that truth. I guess this is the real battle. None of us are completely free of the lie “you can be the god of your own life”. Killing the need to be in control, to worship ourselves; and replacing it with the worship of God in the deepest part of the inner person. I suppose that is the journey from pride to humility. This is the real transformation and we have a part to play; a big part, but we don’t do it alone and we don’t do it in our power “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2: 13).
I don’t want the church to condemn those who are still walking in pride. Who is not walking in pride to some extent? But I don’t want the message of “pride is ok, you can increase your own capacity by your efforts” to be preached in the church. And I want the church to expose these issues, talk about them openly, bring them into the light explicitly; and in grace, helping us all walk on the path of learning how to give up the right to ourselves. Is that too much to ask? Maybe so. I hope not.
Oh, Dennis taught an amazing lesson on Gideon. His message was the antithesis of the message I heard in the morning. Yeah, Jesus.