As the pandemic continues my friend Cheryl McCarthy leads a night watch prayer during the midnight hour. She is the director of Ananias Project, a prayer ministry for Fresh Expressions US.
After last night’s prayer call, I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about my friends in the medical profession and how even now the crisis seems to have no end, despite hope rising. This free verse poem poured out. Afterward, I found rest.
This is for all those who serve unimaginably long hours to care for us. We still see you.
face covered
eyes heavy
hands tired
feet steady
and the sun stands still
heart weary
mind races
courage lingers
more cases
and the sun stands still
one lives
another dies
system broken
justice cries
and the sun stands still
shift change
worn down
body aches
rest now
but the sun stands still
The Hebrew book of Proverbs is considered wisdom literature. In my faith tradition wisdom is understood as an attribute of God that He used to create the world. God’s wisdom brings about a natural order of things so that whenever people are making good decisions they tap into what the Scriptures call wisdom. When people make bad decisions they are working against wisdom. For example:
“Speak out on behalf of the voiceless, and for the rights of all who are vulnerable. Speak out in order to judge with righteousness and to defend the needy and the poor.”
Proverbs 31:8-9
Here lately I’ve heard people say, “Let’s just get along and stop bickering.” I want that too. I’m exhausted and weary from it all. But here’s the problem. As long as there are people in society whose voices are discounted, standing makes them vulnerable, or face oppressive or dehumanizing policies, it is wise to speak out and take action.
When you speak out someone will be offended and speak back. When you take action someone will defend and justify their own. We cannot be surprised or alarmed. Fear, anxiety, exclusion, violence, scapegoating, and power-grabbing are the rules that set the agenda for what the Christian Scriptures call the reign of sin and death.
Sometimes godly wisdom pushes you into hard conversations you’d prefer not to have and actions you’d rather not take. But to not speak or take action is unwise and passively works against God’s wisdom. To not speak or take action is to become complicit to reign of sin and death and miss out on participating in the embodiment Christ’s reign at work in society.
It is wise for Christians to speak out and take action. I only must remember that if my interpretation of wisdom fails to look like the words and actions heard and seen in Jesus, it probably isn’t reflective of God’s wisdom, because “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him.” (Colossians 2:3)
I’ve been thinking about John Wesley and how he is remembered as a faithful and “successful” evangelist of the 18th Century. In 1731 he began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. In the first year his income was 30 pounds and he found he could live on 28 and so gave away two. The next year his income doubled but he held his expenses at the same level. Now he had 32 pounds to give away (a good yearly income). In the third year his income rose to 90 pounds and he gave away 62 pounds. Over the course of his life Wesley’s income grew as high as 1,400 pounds in a year, but he held his expenses steady around 30 pounds each year. This caused so much confusion for the English Tax Commissioners that they investigated him in 1776. A man of his income would at least own silver dishes. Surely was avoiding taxation. In response he wrote, “I have two silver spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many round me want bread.” When he died in 1791, at the age of 87, the only money mentioned in his will was the coins in his pockets and atop his dresser. Most of the 30,000 pounds he earned over the course of his life had been given away. No wonder Wesley had convictions about generosity and wealth:
“One great reason why the rich in general have so little sympathy for the poor is because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is that one part of the world does not know what the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know: they keep out of the way of knowing it – and then plead their voluntary ignorance as an excuse for their hardness of heart.”
But this is about more than giving money away. It’s about being present with those considered lesser, poor, displaced, or marginalized. It is about giving one’s whole life, because that is what God does for us.
Today I am particularly thankful for the business owners, restauranteurs, landlords, and entrepreneurs I’ve talked with over the past few days. They give me hope.
They give me hope because of their compassion and sacrificial posture as they reallocate or liquidate assets and cut their pay so they can care for their employees a bit longer. They give me hope because they are weighing decisions in light of their confession that Jesus is King. They give me hope as they strive to apply the “one-another commands” of Scripture. They give me hope because of their understanding of liberty as citizens of God’s kingdom whose supreme law is love. They give me hope because they believe that self-emptying is the most faithful form of discipleship. They give me hope because they are pushing against the anxiety and narrative of fear so they can listen to the wise counsel of medical experts and exercise godly, patient, and trusting wisdom, rather than hurried and impulsive action.
Despite the hard times, the anxieties, and the heavy weight they carry–payroll, non-negotiable contracts, lease agreements, customer base, inventory, a life-long dream and countless hours of building and sacrificing–I am thankful for how God is forming them as business owners and entrepreneurs of His kingdom. I am thankful for their witness to the never-failing, never-faltering, never-fickle reign of God. I am thankful for their example of what it looks like to pledge total allegiance to King Jesus and follow the God of Calvary rather than the god of economy.
Will they be marked on society’s ledger as practical? Maybe not. Will they be seen as “winners” once this is over? Maybe not. But whose ledger matters, and what does it mean to be a winner, after all? The question I believe that’s worth asking is, will their treasure be stored in heaven and on that Great Day hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant?” I think so, at least that’s what the text says.
Their hope gives me hope.
Next time I find myself singing the verse, “My hope is built in nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,” I will remember them, because in light of their vocation and position of power, the fruit they bore in a culture of greed during these perilous times will make them faithful witnesses to the song.
To those of you reading this who fit this description but I do not know, thank you. Lead us in these strange economic times.
Through Orange Colored Glasses
My dearest mentor, friend, brother, pastor, activist and example. Read it. You won’t be sorry that you did.
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