Two days ago we visited a slum to pick up trash. As we walked the streets and talked with people, it humanized and personalized the struggle of extreme poverty to a little boy in a spiderman Tshirt with a wonderful laugh. There was an older man who thanked us for being there as he shuffled on the extremely uneven road.
In this community there is no school, no running water, no way to lock your doors and every time it rains the trash and storm water from all the surrounding communities floods their homes. They don’t have enough hope to believe that there is something better. That God would want them to have a home that is sustainable, beautiful and sanitary.
In our teaching time we have been making our way through the first few chapters of Genesis with Professor Garner. He has shown us through Genesis 1 & 2 that God wanted us to have a world where the chaos waters don’t rule. Where the rule of God is brought through His people, filling the earth and subduing it.
This teaching helped me that day. It gave me the eyes to see the way that our faith in God, enacted through our choice to serve, can bring His hope to people who have none. We gave that community vision for what their environment could be like under God’s rule. That’s the essence of hope, believing for something you cannot see. Having vision for things that other would describe as impractical or impossible.
It seemed so insignificant to me at the time to pick up trash that will just return the next time it rains. It felt like enabling people to stay, but as I considered it through a Biblical lens I was able to see the beauty in what we were able to offer. Jesus often began His teaching with the phrase “those who have ears to hear.” We all have moments when it is hard to hear the voice of God, calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light. In those times it is God’s people who have to bring us into a new vision for the way forward.
Pain and poverty can BOTH bring us to a place where we are immobile. The dysfunction of our moment can keep us from the flourishing life God wants for us. This is why we have to look out for each other, in our homes, local communities and abroad. We need each other. When one is weak we carry each other to the hopeful vision that living under God’s rule can bring.