A blessing? Really?

I feel the need to open this one with a disclaimer …the fact that it’s been over a month since the last post has not been a result of laziness or neglect. Truth be told, I’ve carried the weight of each passing day like another stone in my pocket. I want so desperately to put to words the lessons that I have been learning here, but instead I’ve managed to inscribe a mere fragment of my heart on paper. So here’s the disclaimer: the magnitude of the subject I have taken on goes far beyond me and this blog. But the goal here isn’t to unearth answers to the questions we’ve been asking for decades. It’s to bring you along with me, via the world wide web, to see just a splinter of what the Lord has shown me….Timidity has not been a particularly prominent trait of mine in years past. But sometimes in the midst of the endless meetings that fill my days, I stare across the shiny conference table and into the eyes of someone whose experience and wisdom, and passion to serve the Lord leaves me in awe. I end up feeling like a little girl who has raided her mother’s closet and donned high heels 4 sizes too big. Suddenly I’m swept up in a very vivid and shockingly real game of dress-up, complete with skyscrapers and Chinese speaking characters. But for once, it isn’t my overactive imagination… In my time here so far, I’ve met many incredible people, but a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit with two men that have dedicated their lives to the advancement of the Kingdom in mainland China. One is a Chinese native, the other, a Caucasian transplant who’d prefer to shoot the breeze in Mandarin over English any day. They met with our group to help strategize the mobilization of the mainland for the Call2All in June. Our goal is the attendance of over 1,200 leaders from China alone. But what started as any other meeting, quickly transformed into much more. As they spoke, the heavy burden their hearts carry for the people of China settled over the room like a thick blanket. Hearing their first-hand experiences of the state of the church in China was sobering, to say the least. Had someone in that meeting been keeping a close watch on me, they may have witnessed the calloused scales fall from my eyes. Looking back on my notes from that day, I had scribbled these exact words: “the biggest mistake I could make here would be to view the Chinese Church through the same lens and same mindset as that of the Western Church.” You see what we have here, although still a horse, is a horse of a drastically different color. You’ve probably heard it all before. Statistics and numbers, and maybe even some stories about the explosion of the gospel in the East. Tales of missionaries smuggling bibles across the border, or drawing the shades before beginning a quiet prayer meeting. But how could we really comprehend the daily life of a believer in the thick of it? One decision to follow Jesus can mean living a life of constant persecution and fear. Coming from a nation where the claim of Christianity carries little consequence, it’s quite difficult to adapt my mind to the terror of public security officers knowing my name. Attempting to relate to such a radical lifestyle --where professing Jesus as your Lord and Savior truly will cost you everything -- is a little bit difficult when sitting in the trendy new coffee shop in the church foyer. So let me reiterate what I hope you already know. The Church in China is exploding. In many places, it’s growing so quickly the pastors can’t provide enough bibles for the congregations; they can’t find a building large enough to contain their newest converts. People are responding to Jesus in such massive numbers that to get an accurate count of Christians in China is nearly impossible. In a land where they have every reason for their numbers to be squelched, they’re multiplying exponentially. So why, in the land of plenty, are we Americans watching our youth programs fade, and our churches close their doors?There are a thousand answers to this mystery. But, the seemingly bitter circumstances of persecution and strife provide an element we seem to lack; undivided focus. Here there is an understanding of truly laying down your life for the Kind of Kings and allowing absolutely nothing to sway you. Very few churches in China have the opportunity to be distracted by the debate over paint colors in the new east wing. Instead their resources are spent in search of the most basic of teaching materials to disciple their flocks. I heard it said the other day that the Church in the West is about self, while the church in persecuted China is about sacrifice. You see, in a typical house church on the mainland, the members will come together and choose one family’s home to begin meeting in. That family will then completely relocate their furniture and belongings and move out of the place they have always called home. Then to make room for their meetings, they’ll knock out all the walls and take advantage of every possible space. This becomes the church’s meeting place until the public security bureau finds them out and raids their gathering, causing its members to flee to the next home. Recently I finished reading The Heavenly Man, a book by Brother Yun detailing his journey to raise up the house church movement across mainland China. Brother Yun has been imprisoned for years on end and beaten within an inch of his life too many times to count. No matter how much of his life was spent suffering behind bars or on the run for the next safe haven, he refused to deny his Savior. And it’s from the depths of those jail cells that he gained the wisdom to grasp the effect the hardships have had on the body of Christ. He says, “When you’re faced with trials, the key is not to run from them or fight them, but to embrace them as friends. When you do this you’ll not fail to experience God’s presence and help… There is always a purpose behind why God allows his children to go to prison.”In the West, it is so safe to claim the name of Jesus that we have trained ourselves to cower at the first sign of harassment or mistreatment. In the face of what we consider adversity, we are quick to admit defeat or, worse, compromise our beliefs. And now I see the safety and freedom that has been our greatest blessing, has in turn become our biggest downfall. Complacency has crept in like a thief in the night and disguised itself as the comfortable church. Many who have gone before me, much wiser than I, have to come to this very conclusion that perhaps it’s the persecution that invokes the full and steadfast commitment we try so desperately to create. It births the kind of allegiance that can’t be shaken and spreads like wildfire, impossible to contain. It ignites a desire to live for something worth dying for. Could it be we are terrified of the essential element we need to be revived? Brother Yun goes on in his book to say “I pray that God might use the Chinese church to help the Western church rise up and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s almost impossible for the church in China to go to sleep in its present situation. There’s always something to keep us on the run. If persecution stops, I fear we’ll become complacent and fall asleep….Don’t pray for the persecution to stop! We shouldn’t pray for a lighter load to carry, but a stronger back to endure! Then the world will see that God is with us, empowering us to live in a way that reflects his love and power. This is true freedom!” It amazes me how staunchly different his perception of true freedom is from my own. I wonder if I have the courage to pray for a stronger back, rather than a lighter load. We live in a nation, where like it or not, we will always be in the middle of building projects and programs. We can’t, and shouldn’t, abandon the realities of our church in the West. But we must catch hold of a life of undivided focus on Jesus, despite everything vying for our attention, and cling to it for all we’re worth. We don’t face the same persecution of the Church in China, but we do face hardships and struggles in our faith. Maybe it’s time to embrace them as the blessings they secretly are; to pray for a stronger back to endure. Maybe then, and only then, we will also witness increase beyond measure.