Will you take me seriously?

I actually wrote this near the end of my time in Kindu, but somehow never actually posted it. So may as well now.

As I normally do on Sundays, I’ve just listened to a downloaded sermon, this one from Jubilee. It got me thinking about some of the UK culture that prevents people from taking Christ seriously. Or to look at it the flip side, where other things are a higher priority than Christ.

By the lakeside, Jesus called Simon Peter to leave his fishing and follow him, which Simon Peter did, immediately and unreservedly. This was just after Peter had made the catch of a lifetime – did he even stay around long enough to even sell the fish? It would have dramatically increased his income for the year, but he gave that up to follow Jesus. And Jesus asks us to be willing to leave everything – our family, jobs, income etc. That doesn’t necessarily he will ask us to leave everything, but if we’re not willing to leave it, it shows there is something that we put as a higher priority than him.

In the UK, I think that people tend to put their security in property and jobs. Getting a good job so you can buy your own property shows that you’re ‘successful’ in British culture. You’ve reached a level of comfort where you don’t need to worry about money so much, and then can start considering raising a family and where to go on holiday next year. After all, what’s wrong with that? It’s wise to prepare for the future, and it’s being responsible to ensure that you’re able to take care of your children. And yes, these are good things to do. But this attitude has become so engrained in us that we now think it’s natural, that God wants our first priority to be towards our family rather than towards him, or that our first priority is to make sure that we’re financially secure so we don’t have to be a burden on anyone else. Looking after others is a high priority, but not our first priority. Relying on God for our everyday food can be more scary, but more faith-building and exciting as well! One couple that I met in Hong Kong found that God was calling them to leave their relatively comfortable accountancy jobs and organise a distribution centre of goods needed by the poorest in society. There were times when they and there two children had to get together and literally ask God for the food for that evening – and God always provided it. Now, the work that they’re doing benefits thousands of people and although they’re not living a hand-to-mouth existence any longer they’re still living by faith in God. They’re not the only family I know who have been in that situation, and it’s testimony that we can trust God to take care of things if we’re willing to give him the responsibility.

This has become more evident to me since being here. Congolese people, by necessity, have to hold more lightly onto their property, belongings and jobs than we do in the West. They’ve had to flee their homes because of fighting, leave everything behind and settle down in a new place. The homes of one of our staff based in Bukavu burnt down two nights ok – he and his family are ok but he has lost everything. That’s not a risk that we face in the UK – even if our home burnt down we would have insurance and would replace the items. Jobs are not definite, and you consider yourself very fortunate if you have any steady income. In short, property, belongings and jobs are not seen as a right here, but as a luxury. In the UK, people believe these things to be their right, and will therefore naturally assume that they should own them. As they’re more entrenched, it’s more difficult to hold them lightly and therefore harder to put Christ in their place, or even to recognise who or what we’re really trusting.

The recent financial crisis in some ways was a good thing. It made people realise that they can’t necessarily put their trust in money. When people are unemployed, they can struggle with feeling worthless – because having a job is one of the ways that success is defined in our culture and people define themselves by what they do. Here in Congo, people are likely to struggle more with not having children than by not having a job – success is defined by family. Every culture has different views of success, and different views of what our responsibilities should be. And it can be so insidious that we don’t even realise where it’s clashing with God’s kingdom culture, and what success means in his eyes – to follow him, no matter what it takes.