last nite the beautiful Val and i went to go and have dinner with our friend bren who we had not seen for a long time which i was really looking forward to. when we got there he was busy prepping a pretty amazing spaghetti bolognaise (i could quite possibly eat that every day, yum.) and he mentioned that he had invited his friend angelique for dinner too.
my initial thort was flip that’s a bit rude – we just wanted to hang with you and now you’re inviting a stranger into the mix. brendan was already daunting me (not really) by being dressed in his lawyer suit while i was in my hang-not-quite-but-close-to-pajama pants and now i’ve got to be social and all that.
sigh.
well it turned out to be an incredible evening. and not just cos angelique brought home-baked nigella lawson chocolate rocky road brownie vibes [flippin mmm.]. it was just the four of us and the most intense (in a good way) full of depth real revolutionary and life-changing conversation. and for the most part i just sat back and observed as bren, angelique and val went at it – trafficking, prostitution, the uthando lenkosi house of safety story, being light to people stuck in darkness, Jesus, life experiences, church, and so on… seems really random when it’s in a list but just in terms of the hanging-with-people times i’m used to which is a meal and maybe a movie or a board game, this was a whole ‘nother level. and it was completely fascinating.
wow. no shmucks at this meal. except maybe me. but i don’t care. it was just a phenomenal time. tiring, as those kind of times are, but brilliant. and just speaking about real, life-changing God stuff really built up my faith (as it does) and especially in the area of needing to really trust God (where tbV and i are in terms of life plan and finances and so on) it strengthened me incredibly and made me super amped to be living that out.
all that. and the spaghetti and dessert was unbelievably amazing. flip.
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Love your honesty man & dinners like that.
Those deeply spiritual interactions are refreshing. I always think that’s what communion is meant to be. We eat and talk about Jesus and remember.
Sometimes Christian conversations no matter how good intentioned, remind me of mice in a cage discussing issues such as leaving nut shells out in the open, leaving the water tube dripping and too much nibbling on the bars of the cage. They invite other mice into their cage and they speak about the mice mix and wonder why the water always tastes slightly off. They talk about real problems that happen in the cage such as fighting, call girl mice and mice chewing on the cage. They feel they must put in the hours on a treadmill to entertain or they won’t get fed. All that they talk about is completely relevant – for mice living in a cage that is.
Now what if a mouse breaks out that cage? He comes to learn that he doesn’t need to eat only a few select nuts. He gets enough exercise running through green pastures that the mouse wheel is a distant memory. The water even tastes better especially when drinking from leaves in the morning. There are hardly any altercations and the mice all live in peace and freedom.
What I’m trying to get at here is that all these problems cannot ever be solved if you play by the rules you’re playing by. Yes, be a Christian, nothing wrong with that, but be a Christian not of this world. You cannot serve both Christ and a corrupt system of enslavery. You and millions of people struggle financially. Why? It is the system in place that binds us, gives us TV so that we live vicariously through others. We fall short of how life in the movies is portrayed. We spend our lives repaying credit cards, bonds and interest. All numbers on a computer. When last have you used a gold coin as in the days of the Gospels? Money is an illusion just like the cage walls of the mouse cage. You can never fix the problems of society if you play by the rules of a corrupt system.
The solution is a gradual transition to exit the cage. Slowly change the rules. Club together with other Christians and purchase land. with this land, we grow crops to feed the people. We have storehouses and residential areas. It becomes self sufficient and no money or numbers are used for trade. We all work towards the community and to becoming better Christians. Everyone works with their hands and does something constructive. The quality of life would be good and others will follow and do similar communities.
So even with the best intentions of stopping human trafficking, we are all supporting it in an indirect way. The system itself is the cage. Think outside the system, a game changer. Isn’t that what a Christian is meant to do?
Like mice in a cage.
You fight over crumbs and think of ways to fix your cage. But never think of ways out of your cage. Who really controls the world, and why can debt never be paid back? You are supporting a system of oppression. Numbers on a machine enslave us for all our years. Break out of that system, and you are free. Didn’t Jesus tell us that?
mmmm yep. but what if the mice in the cage never invited anyone to participate in escaping? or sat around their feeder and pondered ideas on how to do it ? what if those in the cage only kept to themselves ?
yes we all are in a ‘cage’ but not every one in the cage is a mouse. some are rats and some are elephants. most people might be mice that knows the way out is better but choose to stay in the cage to talk/convince (to the caged) about the wonderful world outside where a non-animal-farm-society mentality manifests itself. and not just talk about it but live like they ARE outside the cage.
yes Jesus came to establish his Kingdom on earth and in doing so have placed our cage smack bang in the middle of the new ouside world (heaven), banged a gaping hole in the side of the cage with the cross and sent out blood written invites to everyone to the outside.
some inside the cage are rats that want to stop people ‘escaping’ through the hole that Jesus made.
unfortunately we have a physical presence in this world we wake up to everyday. we live here. we dont have to agree with it (like carl does) but there are also not just one solution to all the problems. diversity is good. you need elephants and duckbilled platypus also. recognition of reality is also good. creating alternative practical ideas and making new plans (like Carl suggested) is the second step after establishing community within the cage.
imho
You must join in and debate. Don’t just sit like you going to bed lazing on the couch in bed clothes.
Priceless Andre. What a winner.