Ann Voskamp - Love is not self-seeking

as a best-seller - ma dong mr. Khanna days and horse camp delays former unit Mensa to be included so Vaughn's office can add a surplus alone mr. Trautman buit and moody from safer affair book and later set sir I think that's hot also broken climate incident on throughout the sign of the black valve a sign of avant Dotson what photos photo comes and tells me a dolphins love is not self-seeking I meet a man in Iraq named Joseph he has a head of hair that would make Justin Bieber and a whole world of girls swoon I mean look at his hair I stand with Joseph in the rubble of his life that Isis has destroyed and I look Joseph in the eye and I lean in and I listen because unless we are consistently listening to the marginalized we marginalize any chance of our own consistent obedience of God and I asked Joseph a young man who once went to church every Sunday in Iraq I asked him what he thinks about God and Joseph's eyes don't leave mine he says I don't feel anything about God I don't believe I used to before all of this but now I think there is no God there is no God who cares about us and then Joseph leans in inches from my face and he says something that cuts me right to the quick Joseph says am I wrong I look into Joseph's eyes and I want to say when we only look out for our own interests others lose their interest in God when we only speak out on issues that concern us others don't believe that God is concerned about them when love is self-seeking no one seeks out or sees the face of God God is only seen in the world when we seek out and speak out for the interests of others in the world when we only pay attention to the pain that affects us and ignore the pain that affects others maybe we aren't Christians as much as we are narcissists is ours a society of narcissism and is narcissism the epidemic of our age of the church and we are we most concerned about self security self interests self comfort narcissism by definition is self-centered instead of others centered and when we don't care about the interests of others how can we claim that we are the ones who are Christ centered have we lost a vision for our common interest in all of our common good and do we only seek out interests that are individualistic that makes us narcissistic CS Lewis writes we must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and his own advancement so then does hell on earth happen when we each only care about our interests on earth and maybe a bit of heaven comes down when we stand up for the interests of others and I turn to Joseph under the heat of that Iraqi Sun and how do I tell him love does not seek to make selfs interests all that matters but seeks out others interests because all humans matter how do I tell him God cares about you Joseph God is with you and we who are his hands and his feet and his heart our interests are with your interest Joseph and we will keep reaching out for you Joseph and I stretched my hands out toward him hands outstretched like a cross this this is us in the midst of a world where we are called to love our neighbor in the midst of a world that is too often about outrage what we need is more outreach love that is not self-seeking is always out reaching this is us cruciform formed and shaped like a cross and when the people of God lived cruciform a world of injustice begins to transform because the one we follow says this is to be the form and shape of our lives if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it whoever would protect his best interests will lose out on the best life but whoever prioritizes the good of others will find the far better life augustine suggested that the rightly ordered loves was the key to a rightly fulfilling life and rightly oriented love is a love that is directed towards the other is cruciform outreaching directed toward the interests of others and standing there cruciform eyes brimming in front of Joseph I say to Joseph Joseph to me when I am home I will lay in my bed and I will ask the Lord why did a sovereign good God allow us to be born where we are born in safety and relative security and our God answers you have been born into opportunity to give others an opportunity to live we are all esters in the palace for such a time as now those who have privilege have always got to risk their privilege for those in pain and if we will not risk our position for those on the run from all kinds of killing fields our position will eventually kill our own Souls we are where we are for such a time as now to know that erecting the idol of comfort is what is part of wrecking this world we are where we are for such a time as now to know that the idolatry of comfort can end up being the slavery of the church pursuing comfort is how evil diverts us from pursuing justice seek comfort and find yourself blind to injustice we are where we are for such a time as now to know that slay the idol of comfort and the church will rise when we cut our cravings for comfort the captives will be cut free and the church's courage will rise the church's cultural leadership will rise the church's innovation and creativity will rise and the church's light will rise we're comfortable apathy is disrupted remarkable possibility ruptures the dark there is a love that is not self-seeking it is outreaching it is cruciform and we could be the esters who risk for advocacy who risk for hospitality who risk for proximity and who slay the idolatry of comfort esters who live so cruciform their lives are like Christ saying if I perish I perish because Christianity is not a free trial offer to get all the benefits without any of the costs the cross is a free gift that requires that we pick up that cross and come and die on it Christianity should cost us our security because it cost Christ his Christianity should cost us hospitality because Christ opened wide his arms and loved us to death Christianity should cost us advocacy because Christ gave everything risked everything laid down everything to be our forever advocate if our Christian life is more like a free trial offer without any cost interested in making instead of interested in making our life into an offering that walks with the vulnerable through their trials are we following Christ or following the path of least resistance I wonder if perhaps justice is only a theory in our lives unless we have proximity in our lives to those experiencing injustice and I memorized Joseph's face I wonder if it is proximity that destroys a cerebral theory about justice and actually builds community I wonder if maybe we're just giving lip service to the theory of justice until we move into community with those who are experiencing injustice to serve them as our friends and I wonder if the test of how deeply we understand justice is how close we get to those experiencing injustice not as personal projects but as people to personally learn from for the posture of justice is more than the vulnerable need help it's that we need the help of the vulnerable we do not deeply understand justice unless our posture is to do more than stand up for the vulnerable but to actually sit and deeply learn from the vulnerable love does not seek to make self the savior of the vulnerable but seeks to make the vulnerable the mentor of ourselves love does not seek to lead others like it's seeking to follow Christ and serve others leaders may be concerned about leading but servants are concerns about following Christ's leading maybe if the church's fixation on the conversation of leadership turned into a conversation about servanthood things might turn around and more things be fixed in this world when we love servanthood more than leadership love moves into the neighborhood and to love our neighbor next door means to be interested enough in them to open our doors because our theology is best expressed in our hospitality and this was the gilt Ezekiel 16 reads of your sister Sodom and she and her daughters had pride excess of food and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy Sodom's great sin was prosperous indifference instead of taking up the interests of the poor Sodom's great sin wasn't as much immorality as it was a lack of interest in hospitality and Joseph he moves in so close I can feel the warmth of his breath on my face and he says you you get to go home you get to be safe there's a United Nations for you and I asked Joseph you don't feel like there's the United Nations for you that there's not any way for you to be safe and love thy neighbor means love does not seek its own and love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never fails and when love bears all things that word in the Greek bear its stego and it literally means love is a thatched roof love is a roof and love bears the rain for those seeking refuge and love is a roof that doesn't protect itself but surrenders itself love makes you into a real roof for others your story is meant to be a love story and the question your love story is always asking is who and what will you love will you love your own interests or will you be most interested in making all the pages of your love story into a love story for others once upon a time I stood in Iraq with a man named Joseph who looks me straight in the eye before I leave and he says words that haunt my nights he said in this world I am NOT human you can fly back to your island of safe but I am left to breathe as a nonhuman and there is no one no United Nations no United people no United Front no one who cares where I exist how I exist or if I exist and there are people on this globe who feel like non humans because the people of God take a non interest in vulnerable humans I once held a woman from the Congo who bore witness to the late of a machete splaying open the veins over one mother's neck and she turned and she ran for weeks across whole countries and her tears ran over the torture scars on her cheeks ran salty down my arms her words running right into me why was my life supposed to be like this what if our love is not self-seeking but seeks out and sits down with the pain of the other so that a whole world of hurting people will decide how interested they are in Jesus by how interested we are in the hurting I now once with a woman who was raped thousands of times in Syria body and soul bought owned and traded for years by Isis and she howled to the heavens when they slammed her baby boy's head up against the cement walls like a rat to be smashed and I reached out to tenderly touch her sons now twisted ear and I wondered if the world heard over the roar of the warring and the thunder of running feet the cries that just plead please please dignity and humanity are not a function of geography or nationality and no person's worth is based on where they breathe in this world and when you do not choose for your roof to be the open devouring mouth of ravenous violence where in the world can you and your wide-eyed children find anyone who will just choose to say welcome come in love is a roof and your interest will be our interests here and only a handful of days ago as I stood in an airport moments before I got in a plane to winged myself here to you our Syrian refugee family from Aleppo whom our family sponsored to come to a safe country and be aided for us by a year they send me these photos of their brand-new son just born on safe soil just born under loves roof and they tell me their newborn son's name his name is Joseph and I whisper welcome come in we will not be undifferenced to your interests but protect your interests for your face like every single face reflects the face of God you

Channel: The Justice Conference NL

Views: 4,226

Rating: 4.8095236 out of 5

Keywords: Ann Voskamp, Justice Conference, JusticeConference, Tear, 2018, MiddenNederlandHallen, Barneveld, Nederland, Netherlands, Compassion, IJM, ChristenUnie, 24-7prayer, MichaNederland, StichtingPresent, CHE, CEA, EO, Viaa, NewWine, Lightfortheworld, Youth for Christ, ZOA

Id: HPPQRhVFgqU

Length: 18min 57sec (1137 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 27 2018