I missed my day to post due to planning and running the 30hr Famine. Sorry about that.....
As I prepared for this wonderful and tiring event, I was drawn to Isaiah 58.
Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
Its easy to think very highly of one's self when one is doing something like fasting in public. Jesus seemed to have words to say about this that echo Isaiah's. And yet, the 30hr Famine is not about drawing attention to those who fast. Rather, it is about those who fast getting the attention of as large a group as possible, and then directing that attention away from themselves, and onto those who need justice, freedom, release, those who go to bed hungry night after night, using all of their energy merely trying not to starve. This weekend 42 teens from BNC and Rogers gathered together for the purpose of helping those in need. In the process they learned a little bit about what it means to be hungry, and they also had a really good time. As of right now, your teens raised enough money to feed 14 hungry people in Malawi for all of next year. That's two years in a row that we've accomplished that. They've done more than just dole out money, though. This weekend our teens were confronted with God's message of justice, of jubilee, and they were presented with the opportunity to be a part of the change that God wants to render in the world. You see God is always on the side of the poor, the oppressed, and the hungry. In a small way, our teens offered food to the hungry and satisfied the needs of the afflicted. In doing so, I caught a glimpse of them that looked less like a group of teens, and more like a "watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail." I hope they saw that in each other, and in themselves. I'm very proud of our teens, and you should be too.
Lord, may your light rise in the darkness, and may you chase away the gloom that is global poverty, and make it become like the noonday sun.
