Delayed Gratification

The message came across loud and clear as I watched the TV the other day. Not only do I deserve 'it', but I deserve it now!

There is no doubt that two values that define our generation, and inform our lives are individualism, and immediacy. I take care of myself and at a stretch for 'mine', because I'm worth it. Not only is it all about me, but it should be mine now. Financial, emotional or physical debt is irrelevant, the way my wants affect you is irrelevant - providing I get what I want when I want it.

These same cultural values are reflected in the church. (Proponents find biblical justification for it, but let's face it we could justify anything if we tried hard enough.) There are loud voices crying in the wilderness, demanding individual evangelistic results. They are keeping score, cutting notches in their bibles and arguing that unless I am 'winning souls for Jesus' and doing it now, that I am failing as a Christian. They suggest that a relationship is only worth my time if a salvific result is achieved quickly.

This model of evangelism betrays a selfish agenda - it seems to say more about me than it does about 'others'. It appears to be more about validating me than valuing others. It's more about results at any cost; cheap, quick cultural conversion and a notch in my leather bound study bible.

If this is the model of evangelism to which I am to be held to account then I'm a failure, and I suspect I'm not alone. Lucky for me I don't believe it's Jesus' model (or is that just my justification?). It seems to me that Jesus was in for the duration, the long-haul relationship -not the lightening raid!

Sri Lanka

Amazing news of cessation of three decades of war, but I can't help feeling some degree of cynicism. Is it really over? Have the most passionate of people really laid down their arms uncinditionally? And regardless of the immediate outcome, what of the cost to Sri Lanka and her people?

And where to from here? I've heard the cries of 'One Nation, One People' but who gets to decide? Will the Tamil (and Moor) minorities actually get a voice in the decisions to come? And what future is there for the thousands of displaced people - those Sinhalese and Tamil people who fought to live and in the process lost homes, family and friends.

In the sprint to create a nation who watches out for the citizens that won't matter?

I don't pretend to understand the complexities that inform a thirty year war. But there are some that have benefitted from the ongoing fighting, there are some that have made their reputation: but I do not believe that it is over for thousands who were, and will be, used as pawns in an essentially greedy and ugly grab for power.