...our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home!
A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night, before the rising sun.
Time like an ever rolling stream,
bears all its years away,
they fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.
September 2013
Two weeks after our arrival in country, a terrorist organization attacked and caused the destruction of 69 lives and the entire shopping center we had been in a few days earlier for supplying our new life. Westgate attack imprinted the reality of our new life. Always on edge, never really "safe", but surely never lacking heart. The intensity of life in Kenya was ratcheted up forever. Every trip to a supermarket or western restaurant comes with a security screening to remind you- be alert, the enemy is still active and out there, don’t be passive! There is no safe place, but in Jesus.
Two years later, July 15, 2015-
We were in the pleasant places of the Sequatchee Valley, Tennessee, watching the far, far away planets of Jupiter and Saturn in the summer night sky. At that time Jupiter and Saturn seemed closer than our Kenyan life. Together with good friends who also moved from Kenya to Tennessee around that time, we sat by a campfire and reflected. We were all so refreshed at living in such a safe and idyllic scene again. Ahh, we foolishly pronounced. "No Al-Shabab here. Just peace and quiet."
Until the next morning.
On July 16, 2015, exactly 2 weeks after we arrived back in our "home country" a lone terrorist attacked the US military installations in Chattanooga bringing our new city to a screeching halt of humble prayers. There were 5 who fell that day, one could say gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Four US Marines, and 1 Navy sailor. And we were given pause to reflect at a very deep level. "What is safe?" The geography of safety just collapsed. Again. There is no safe place but in Jesus.
July 16, 2018,
The billboards around town are transformed for a few days to say "Never Forget" and they have the 5 uniform hats of those service men to remind us what happened. I drive by the spot weekly on the way to my kid’s piano lessons. For heaven's sake, never forget what we are living this life for. It may be taken in a moment of gun blast or car crash or long slow sickness. But what is truly terrible is the ebbing of life under the deception of materialism and vain pursuits of pleasure. To miss the moment by moment grace to be alive at all, to chase 3 fundamental idols of Power, Control, and Comfort- as in spending our life on small conveniences, and the perversion of the "American Dream"- the pursuit of selfishness - that is the terror of losing Real Life. I am not safe even in my own heart- only in Jesus. Pastor Kevin always tells us at New City Fellowship “The safest place for a sinner is in the arms of Jesus”.
July 16, 2019
Reflecting on the normal day, normal town, normal job, that our Fallen Five were living their normal life in, I wonder do I live for what I believe in every normal day? Or do we forget? Is my goal self oriented (yes by default) or is my heart remembering that my life has been bought at a very high price- the Life of Jesus? Will my life be eaten up by hate and fear and political ratcheting of anxiety? No. I have been four years pondering this story. I pray that you ponder it four seconds even. Where is your Safety?
No comments:
Post a Comment