What Faith Can Do

Security warnings were updated this week.  The "red zone" as determined by the US government now looks roughly like this:

That's a lot of red in what has long been known as a welcoming, hospitable country.

At the same time, you may have seen on the news that local Christians in the northern part of the country have come under attack in recent weeks.  In a country where the Muslim-majority has peacefully lived alongside Christian neighbors for decades, it is now reported that the jihadists are changing tactics by trying to instill interreligious conflict. (source) This possibility has been present for a long time.  Back in 2017, at the church nearest our house in the capital, bags were searched and everyone had to go through metal screening upon arrival at Sunday morning service.  Of course, a metal detector would not stop the current mode of attack, but it does highlight that Christians have been aware of the risk for quite some time, yet churches continue to grow and the Gospel continues to spread.

It was with all this on my mind that I hopped in the car to take Daniel to school one morning this week.  What I heard on the Christian radio here in the US brought me to tears.  In a light-hearted morning show, the radio hosts celebrated the local hockey team's play-off run by having listeners call in to dedicate a song to the team.  I listened in disbelief to a string of three listeners describing the season with lyrics meant for Jesus, such as equating this play-off run with the lyrics "That's what faith can do."

Really?!  That's what faith can do? Get you through a sporting season???  You are telling me Jesus got this team to the play-offs when we have brothers and sisters around the world whose faith in Jesus might not get them home from Sunday morning worship?

"There is a great gulf between the Christianity that wrestles with whether to worship at the cost of imprisonment and death, and the Christianity that wrestles with whether the kids should play soccer on Sunday morning....Jesus never called us to a life of safety, nor even to a fair fight. 'Lambs in the midst of wolves' is the way he decries our sending." 

John Piper, The Hidden Smile of God

Which faith is yours?