As I collect some of my thoughts regarding my trip to India (some of which I will continue to post here) I thought it would be appropriate to share the  lyrics a song that will appear on “Y,” the 3rd EP in the CMY(K) series. It’s an adaptation of the list Mahatma Gandhi made of  the traits to be the most perilous to humanity:

* Wealth without Work
* Pleasure without Conscience
* Science without Humanity
* Knowledge without Character
* Politics without Principle
* Commerce without Morality
* Worship without Sacrifice

My version goes something like this:

Lord, You know we’ve seen it
Wealth without the work
And pleasure with no conscience 
Both plagues upon the earth

We are overwhelmed; we are overcome
And yet we live in expectation

Lord you know we’ve lived it 
Religion with no cost
Worship that means nothing
Because it does not bear a cross

 We are overwhelmed; we are overcome
And yet we live in expectation

 Science with no heart
Knowledge with no character
Politics without a sense of place
And we’re selling things without a thought
For what we need
And what really cost.

We are overwhelmed; we are overcome
And yet we live in expectation 

I am in India with Compassion International, visiting church partners who are serving their communities. Compassion’s philosophy inspires me partially because of how much sense it makes. Bob and Carol Lenz are on the same trip. Below is a short account of a gift they brought to the kids at one of Compassion’s church partners.
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Bob and Carol Lenz had brought along a bag full of small gifts to give to the kids, each gift identical to the others.  There were nearly 300 kids packed into the small room.  The gift required a small bit of explanation for use and so Bob began to walk through the steps, aided by a translator.  But the more Bob explained the details, the more the kids and the translator looked puzzled.

“We do not understand.” explained the Compassion staffer.  “These words are difficult to translate.”  You see, not only does English not smoothly translate into Hindi (India’s legally-established, national language), not all Indian’s speak Hindi. In fact, only Indian’s from the Northern regions speak Hindi.  Indian’s in the Southern regions mostly refuse to accept Hindi as the national language on political grounds and won’t even attempt to learn it.  More often than not, Indians in rural areas use regional, tribal dialects to communicate. 

So, in order to rightly offer the gift Bob and Carol brought, we were each going to have to show each child how to unwrap, assemble and use the gift individually. This posed another obstacle: The room was so densely crowded that there was no foot-space between children. Should we try to access the kids in the middle, we would trample other kids on our way.

One of the Compassion staff took a gift from Bob, knelt on the ground in front of one child and showed her how to unwrap it, assemble it and use it. He then handed her another gift, still in the wrapping and gestured her to teach the boy behind her what to do.  We followed suit, showing the kids we had access to, the ones directly in front of us, how to unwrap, assemble and use the gift in such a way that they could then turn around and to the same for the child behind them and so on and so on.

There are 1.4 Billion people living in India. That’s one sixth of the world’s population in an area roughly one third the size of the U.S.  A large percentage of Indians live in desperate conditions which generally include a lack of education, lack of access to job opportunities and the utter absence of basic medical care.  Not only are the particular issues plaguing Indian’s overwhelming, the obstacles for Westerners wanting to help are equally overwhelming.

This is why I am so thankful for the way Compassion International works; partnering with already established local churches to assist their particular work among the particular people in a particular place.  Because Compassion works the way it does, our role (yours and mine) does not include wrapping our minds around all the intricacies and complexities of the “Problem” and trying to “Fix It.”  Instead, we get the blessed privilege and honor of caring for a particular child and doing so with the hopeful knowledge that kids who learn to read teach their families to read; kids who learn how to avoid water-borne illness teach their families to do the same; kids who discover the love of God in Christ pass that discovery on to their families and friends. 

The gift you and I get to offer has deep impact on the lives of kids because of the wonderful benefits child sponsorship affords (education, medical care, community, etc..).  But the deeper and more powerful impact is that, in Compassion partner churches, these kids are taught to see themselves as far more than people in need who receive the gifts of generous people.  They are taught that they are agents of healing, health, ingenuity and love themselves. They become gift-givers in their own neighborhoods for whom language and access are not obstacles at all. 

Some of you already know that I am in India with Compassion International. I have the great privilege of visiting Compassion church partners in several locations and seeing what Compassion’s work looks like here.  One of the greatest opportunities this affords me is visiting the homes of specific children who are in and benefitting from Compassion’s work. This is a short account of one such visit just today.
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Deephalder is five and a half years old and lives with his grandparents. He also lives with a rare blood disease called “Thalassemia” and requires a blood transfusion every six weeks. Each transfusion costs 1600 Rupee which is 80% of his grandparents’ household income. The expense of treating thalassemia is the primary reason why, upon receiving the diagnosis when Deep was only five months old, both parents left him. 

When Deep’s grandmother had finished telling us about the disorder, the cost of transfusion and the day of work either she or Deep’s grandfather has to miss when they take the four-hour bus ride to the hospital, we asked how they were able to afford the other necessities of life on top of Deep’s treatment.  She glowed as she told us that Compassion had picked up the cost of the transfusion.  That means that, somewhere in the U.S., a young man or woman is sacrificing $1.23 a day to ensure that, along with basic medical care, an education and food, Deep can continue to receive his treatment.

Money enough to buy a daily cup of coffee is quite literally saving the life of a five-year old child.

This is why I partner with Compassion; their work through local churches in the poorest areas of the world puts children from those places within arms reach on you and I. And because our small sacrifice is has such deep and lasting impact in the hands of the church partners Compassion assists. 

If you don’t already, consider doing so yourself by sponsoring a child. 

I have been on vacation for a few weeks and plan on returning to blogging regularly now that I’m back. I’ll be continuing the CMY(K) blog series, highlighting key songs from the project, as well as picking up the “No, YOU Shut Up” series.  For the time being, I’m posting a few reflections that will eventually be part of teachings I’ve prepared for this Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

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During the months and years following September 11, 2001, one of the more prominent sentiments was a kind of national solidarity.  Our common sense of injury and offense bound us together as Americans.  “We” had been attacked and “we” would respond, “we” would recover and “we” would remember together. We had good reason to lock arms with American neighbors of every stripe and consider more deeply the brotherhood of US citizenship.  But reflection on the event also provides entry to a broader form of solidarity. On Sept 11 2001, we had a stark and tragic look what it is like to live somewhere like Bosnia, Northern Uganda or any number of places where events of quite similar offense and terror are more regular features of life.

We did suffer a terrible and reprehensible act of violence. Similarly, Bosnians suffered the a reprehensible act of violence when nearly 30,000 Muslim brethren were exterminated in 1995.  We were made to feel vulnerable and unsafe, just as Rwandans in 1994 suffered the slaughter of over 800,000 fellow Rwandans (nearly 20% of their population), many of them children, in less than 100 days.  I do not at all mean to lessen our own national tragedy.  I only want to set in the context of others in the hope that, as we reflect this weekend, we might allow our injury and offense to move us past nationalism to a wider value of human life.

While the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is certainly a time to reflect on what it means to be an American and therefore a member of the American family; it can, and perhaps ought to, also be a time to reflect on what it means to be a human; to share the same fears, hopes and needs and fragility as every other blessed soul on the planet.  To put a finer point on it: allowing our reflection on this great tragedy to end only in a deeper sense of national pride and ownership will not be a mistake.. but it will be sadly short-sighted.

Forgive the long silence. I’ve been in the studio recording my next project. The blog will soon be plenty active with conversation about the songs and themes of CMY(K).

I’m pretty sure I’m not going anywhere today. I mean, I’ll go for a walk with my family this morning and then across town to the studio later.  But I’m pretty sure I’m not headed anywhere celestial…

…because I’m pretty sure it’s not Judgement Day.

I’m trying to be funny.  Funny is how I deal with things like embarrassment or sadness. And I’m definitely fighting off a bit of both embarrassment and sadness today.

I’m sad for the folks who believed Harold Camping had discovered something that even Jesus said he didn’t know.  I suppose it’s not at all funny (in fact, it’s downright heartbreaking) to believe something so strongly as to be happy facing ridicule over it only to find out it was untrue.

I’m also sad for Harold Camping because, regardless of whatever good he’s done in his life, this will be the most prominent moment of his public legacy.

I’m embarrassed that such a thing gets more attention than IJM’s rescue of 500 slaves last month… More attention than the 1000 clean water wells the Blood:Water Mission recently celebrated… More attention than the hundreds of thousands of child-sponsor relationships facilitated by Compassion International and the 1-million-plus children whose lives have been dramatically changed because of those relationships.

I’m saddened and embarrassed that this stunt will color the way my faith is seen by those who already find it odd… because I think (better yet, I know) that the christian faith is made up of far more substantial stuff than this.

So, perhaps today isn’t Judgement Day the way Harold Camping thought it would be… But for those of us who haven’t quit calling ourselves ‘christians,’ (even when it means standing arm-in-arm with Camping and his sect as part of the family) it sure as hell is something very like a day of Judgement.

Today is a day when it really does cost something to say I believe in Jesus Christ.

Because believing in Jesus means believing some pretty odd things to be true. And today, many of those odd things I believe are tangled up with things that are equally odd and tragically untrue.  The challenge is to continuing believing these odd things regardless, rather than throw out all oddities from my worldview in exchange for something much safer.

These odd things I believe make me the person I am. They move me to make art.. To be a better husband and friend.. To keep working, in the name of Jesus, for the rescue of children from extreme poverty… To keep working, in the name of Jesus, for the rescue of people from slavery and indentured servitude.. To keep loving, in the name of Jesus, the actual neighbors I live among,.. To, in the paraphrased words of St. Peter “Live such a good life that, though they mock me, they would yet see my good works and glorify God.”

So even though the Judgement doesn’t show up today the way Family Radio has described it.. It has shown up the way it has for christians since the first days of our movement.  And I hope, as I am judged, right alongside brother Harold, for believing some very odd things, that I will be found faithful to the things I believe and to the person those beliefs make me into.

Harold Camping’s stunt makes my job harder. But it’s still my job and I am still honored to do it.

Here is the original video blog (vlog) I’d planned on posting before writing it out…