Theology of Risk - Hebrews 11

A fairly big part of my job is helping respond to crises in different countries, whether that be coup d'états, crime, political insecurity or the threat of kidnapping and terrorism.

Once you start planning for crises and making decisions about when to pull people out of hot spots, you end up eventually looking at what some call the "theology of risk". How do you weigh the risk of having people in danger against the benefit of them being there. And how does God fit into the equation? 

There are very different views on this from group to group. You basically have two different ways of handling things:

• The organization lets each individual make their own decision based on prayer, personal judgment. The result is that some people leave and others stay on to the bitter end.
• The organization makes decisions for the their entire group with varying degrees of input from members. Decisions to leave could be based on predetermined triggers, policies, embassy warnings, etc.

There are differing underlying assumptions and oddly enough you can find scriptures for both viewpoints:

God has called me here and will protect me: 

Ps 138: 7 Though I am surrounded by troubles,you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand,and the power of your right hand saves me.

Ps. 91:9 If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, 10 no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. 11For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.

God instructs us to take note of danger, plan for it and withdraw from it when possible.

Proverbs 22: 3 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

The Theology of Risk studies I have seen usually take you through Acts and you note that in some cases,

• God acts mightly to protect people  - Peter rescued from prison by angels
• God does nothing and people are killed - Stephen is martyred, and persecution erupts and the church spreads.
• God's people take preventative action - Paul lowered to safety over the wall in a basket.
• God's people stay on in spite of warning and evidence of danger. Paul going on to Jerusalem even when told it will mean his imprisonment and also choosing options leading to long-drawn out trials when he could have been freed. 

And so you are left with no clear direction and the reality that sometimes God protects, sometimes it is right to withdraw and sometimes it is right to stick it out and face persecution.  This can lead to a lot of tension in communities when people are taking very different and apparently equally legitimate decisions.

This week I was reading in Hebrews 11 in the great "Hall of Faith" chapter and got to the end, which I memorized back in college. Since all of this crisis stuff was in my mind, I looked at it through those lenses:

Hebrews 11: 32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

 So far so good. This is what we expect from God - protection and miracles, especially in the Western church. But vs 35 continues without a break to:

There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

This is the bit that is harder to deal with, especially if you go into risk thinking God will protect you at all costs. But maybe the people who were flogged, or sawed in two were just people who did something wrong, or fell out of favor with God, or misinterpreted his will and shouldn't have been there. No, that would be too easy an answer because it continues:

39 These were ALL commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

So they were all people of faith, doing what God asked of them, and commended for it.


This passage doesn't do much to elucidate the Protection vs Prevention debate. For one, the focus is looking backwards after everything is done and over with, rather than looking forward, as one does in contingency planning. It does add in the forward focus in verse 40 with the bit about God planning something better for us so that together WITH us their past victories and sufferings could be made perfect, but then I have never fully understood that last verse.

May God continue to give us wisdom, protect us where needed and give grace to face the suffering when it comes, knowing that it, too, has a purpose that will one day be made perfect. 

Beginnings I: French Study (1993)

It seems that I am in a time of transition, with things circling back around in interesting ways. Just two weeks ago, I moved out of my apartment where I had lived for 13 years and into the apartment I lived in when I first arrived in 1994.


Looking back, I have found some of my journal entries from back when I started out on my overseas journey. This one is from the day I arrived in France for french study:

7/22/93

In France, August 1993

      Arrived today in France, eight years after my first SIL courses and a little over 20 years after my folks went to Lebanon.  It's hard to believe that I'm really a missionary now  (as if location really means anything).

      It's 11:20 pm and for some reason I'm still up.  I haven't slept in 30 hours or so.  I left DFW at 5:30 pm Wed (7/21/93) and arrived in Paris at 9:30 a.m.  Took a taxi with all three of my huge bags and my carry-ons to Le Gare d'Lyon.  Had to wait there for 4 hours.  I was really worried about getting all my bags from the airport to the station and on to the train.  A really nice French man ( a porter) helped me find a locker and get change to plug it.  He even took me to information.

      Looked everywhere for an elevator (to get my bags upstairs). Returned in despair to my locker, only to find one 5 feet away.  God provided (in advance)!

      The train ride was fun.  I kept catching glimpses through the trees as I rode backwards at high speed.  I never could get a good look - just snatches here and there, kind of like a movie preview.  Really beautiful scenery.  I literally caught my breath a few times.

      Leaving Oklahoma was strange.  It was odd to have so many things stripped away at once:  car, keys (one by one), library card, Blockbusters card....  I was left feeling naked, as if part of my identity had gone with those things.  I guess keys and cards give you access to places and things, there by giving you some importance.  Your car, of course, gives you total independence.

French Study retreat in Switzerland, Fall 1993

      Didn't really think about leaving until 2 days beforehand.  It was kind of like being in a dream.  Slowly, it sank in.  Not until I was on the plane to France, did I realize "I'm not going to see anyone I know for the next 4 years."

      Scared about the trip and traveling details, but I made it.  God's grace and presence were surely with me.  It's nice to be in the strong grasp of the "Swift Sure Hand" (Stephen Lawhead).  I guess next time I travel it will be easier because I'll be able to communicate some.

It is odd looking back on this time with 19 years of distance. I flashed back to the first train on my trip to France in May this year. And this time I helped someone who did not know any French figure out the train. And I still had more bags than I could handle!

I have identified the stripping away of keys many times since as part of the cycle of going back and forth between the US and Africa. You start with many keys, then "turn them all in" until you have none. Then you go to the other side and get your keys "back" from wherever you left them.

Emptying out my apartment earlier this month and getting rid of 80% of my possessions feels very similar to the stripping away of identity I felt in 1993.

It is comforting to read about my 1993 fears about going to a new place where I did not know ANYONE. Looking back, I can say that most of the people I know and interact with friends today I have made on this side of the ocean.

God is good! May I find my identity in him and in what he brings my way. 

I wanna live in a simple house - well, kinda.

(With apologies to Margaret Becker for stealing the first line from "simple house")

I have been grappling recently with a call to simpler living, to giving up the earthly things that ground me or at least which provide comfort and security. A stripping away of things.

I have always been of the conviction that a single person working overseas needs his or her own space, a place that can be their home base, especially given that when we travel on work trips, we do not take our "home" with us in the person of a spouse or family. So it is good to come back to a place that is truly ours, to a town where you have had built friendships and a support group.

However, given the instability of the country where I live, I have left my apartment and my cat Tigger behind and been on the road for the past 7 weeks, 2 weeks in Burkina Faso, 2 in Thailand (for meetings), two in France (for vacation) and now back in Burkina. If conditions are right, I hope to return "home" soon, but am considering giving up the apartment where I have lived since 1999 - longer than I have every lived ANYWHERE! Moving to our guesthouse would make me much more flexible and able to leave if conditions become insecure. I would have many fewer things to manage (guard service, cleaning, rent payments, etc). And this would provide extra income for our guesthouse which badly needs it due to the crisis.

In addition, I have a job offer which may well take me to Cameroon in 2013 when my current role ends, and will call for a decent amount of time traveling from guesthouse to guesthouse. All this means giving up the stability of a place that is my own, with the comforts of a microwave, stove, fridge, French cable TV, dvd player, books, tools, bike, keyboard, saxophone, some rugs and pictures, exercise equipment, and a sweet little kitty. And a city that I know well, full of people that I know and love.

This was never what I expected. I mean didn't I already give up a house back in America, nearer to friends and family with lots more comforts? Do you really want me to give up the one in Africa that has no AC or hot water, is dusty and hot much of the year, has an open sewer running in the street out front, and seems to be in the middle of a construction zone most of the year.



Last week, my reading plan took me to two passages about the living conditions God lays out for those serving him.

Numbers 35: 1-6. In this passage, when the land of Israel is being divided among the tribes, each tribe is given land except the Levites who were to serve as priests and thus less concerned with worldly pursuits. However, each tribe is commanded to give  complete cities to the Levites for them to dwell in. "Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals".
One can conclude that it is normative that those serving God have houses  -  some sorts of dwelling places for their possessions and to live. But somehow this is to be less of a focus for them than for the other tribes.

Luke 10:1-17 is the passage where Jesus sends the 72 out, two by two, on an initial preaching trip of several weeks. It is interesting to note that in verses 4-12, only two verses have to do with the simple message they are to preach -  "the Kindgom of God is near" - and a full seven have to do with what they should take with them (nothing) and how they should accept hospitality and what to do if they do not receive it.
Jesus basically sends them out with NOTHING - no money bag, no suitcase, no extra shoes (not even cycling shoes which I lugged around in my luggage to Thailand and France last month???). As As with the Levites, God makes provision for his servants via the hospitality and gifts of others. Don't even worry about being a burden on those you are visiting - stay in ONE house the whole time you're in a town, not moving about.

God promises so much if we will let him strip away things:

"You're blessed when you've lost it all.
God's kingdom is there for the finding." Luke 6:21 (message). 

When God called Peter (Luke 5), the calling was preceded by Jesus telling them, "Push out into the deep water and let your nets out for a catch." Peter expresses that they have not caught anything all night but "if you say so, I will do it.". . . And nothing was ever the same for him.

The morning after I received the job invitation which would involve me moving to a new country, I read the call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-2): "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." Abraham is being called from the land and the house and all that he knows to something much better, that will be a blessing for him and for many others.

Can I trust you, Lord, to go out into uncharted waters and territory? The idea is growing in my heart and head. Hope I can keep up.

Thoughts from the Pressure Cooker III - Consider the Sunflowers of the Field

Continuing on in thoughts gathered in the 3 weeks I was in Mali following the coup d'état that started on March 21. 

The passage from yesterday's post (Matthew 6:25-27) goes on to say,

And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if god cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. . . . Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

There is nothing like packing that one "just in case" suitcase you are allowed on the evacuation plane to put everything in perspective. I have lived in the same apartment in Bamako since 1999 and filled it with things brought from America 2 suitcases at a time or bought locally.

On April 4 (day 14 of the coup), as I lay in bed at midnight reading news articles on my phone, I decided that things were looking like we might be leaving sooner than I'd thought. And given that I had a huge amount of things to finish at the office, I could see myself on the last day, running home with one hour to spare to pack. So I got up and worked from midnight to 3 a.m. to pack my suitcase. Walking around the house in the wee hours you realize that there is VERY little that you really need and can't live without. I ended up with

• some tax, medical and legal records, 
• a few changes of clothes
• very basic toiletries, and medicine
• family pictures 
• a few special items that I had made or people had made for me. 
• my journals

Everything else, you can do without. It seemed so anticlimactic and in a sense so contrary to the party game where you ask what you would save from your house if it was on fire, or what you would take to a desert island because it really was a no-brainer.

I did not leave until a week later and flew out on a regular commercial flight and so had 40 kilos and so was able to add a second small suitcase - more clothes, some books, some work files and some cycling items - just in case I could find a bike. In the end, my suitcases were even 3 kilos under the limit.

It's easy to feel somehow spiritual about leaving all behind, but I know in my heart of hearts that I have a vast network of people overseas who can and will help me to replace what I need, and also a credit card.

But what of "the least of these"? (more on that in part IV).