I Am Limited

LOVED the musical, btw.

In the first half of the musical, Wicked, one character sings, "I'm unlimited!" She's exhilarated to discover all that she can do. By the end, she's singin' a different tune. While there's much she can do, it's not all hers to do. And when she overreaches, it...does not go well.

I've had a lot of conversations lately about how much there is to do. Child soldiers in Uganda. Sex trafficking in Asia. Clumsy missionary support. Marriages falling apart. There is an endless list, of course.

And the first reaction is often, We all need to do something about this! If we all ______ (adopted an orphan/called our congressman/mentored a teenager/wrote to our missionaries/gave more money) the problem would be solved!

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I bet you can already see flaws in this approach. If we all committed to all of the causes proposed to us, we'd 1) die of exhaustion, and 2) create new messes.

Freakonomics interviewed a Dutch mathematician who wrote a local university paper on population dynamics in 1975. A guy in China read it and created the one child policy. Scientists created the ultrasound machine to dramatically improve healthcare. The technology was distributed in China to enforce the one child policy but was instead used to identify a baby's gender. Twenty-five years later, Asia is missing 160 million women.

What really struck me was that each person along the way believed he was doing good. There was logic and evidence to support them. They weren't trying to create a glut of abortions or a massive gender imbalance. They were trying to save their country from starvation and poverty. They were trying to clean up messes.

"When Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn't succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy" (Romans 11:7).

Which is not to say we should all become the Wicked Witch of the West ("no good deed will I do"). We are called to selflessness and courage and compassion where God is leading us to serve. But not to solve every problem, or to convince everyone to solve our pet problem. Paul talked about what his assignment was (Gentiles, celibacy) and wasn't (Jews, marriage), not to mention that Christ didn't spend 33 years rushing around trying to heal everyone.

What is This Feeling?

Which is really important to remember, because I know how easy it is for that first blush of passion to become something else when others don't share the same passion: criticism, judgment, bitterness, condescension, disillusionment, hopelessness, and withdrawal. 

Brian Habig, referencing Acts 2 ("Life Together") and its description of the New Testament church, talks about how many use this passage to condemn their own communities. No matter your agenda, your community will disappoint if you expect everyone to follow the same agenda/leader/passion God has given you:

When one of you says, "I'm on Paul's side," and another says, "I'm for Apollos," aren't you being totally infantile? Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow (1 Corinthians 3:4-8, emphasis added).

Paul starts his letter to the Corinthians reminding them to be united in Christ and not divided by their allegiances to different teachers/agendas. Later in chapter 12 he reminds them that while united in Christ, they are gifted differently and called to serve in different ways. But what I really love is that he ultimately responds to their bickering (each claiming to have the most important agenda) by calling them to love each other and calling that more important than any of their agendas (1 Cor 13).

As Long As You're Mine

It is exciting and encouraging to see people ignited to help others, passionate about service, inspired by love for those in pain. I just pray that this passion helps each of us find our role in the "body of Christ" (the church), loving those at home and abroad, assuming the best about those around us, and celebrating our diverse callings in a very messy church/world.