Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold

This is the JB Phillips translation of Romans 12:1, quoted by Marva Dawn in her book Truly the Community.  She talks about how each person has a unique aspect of the glory of God to embody and reflect, and a true community allows individuals to safely explore and express who they are.  Instead of cultural rules that stamp out deviation and constrict diversity by molding character from the outside, we should encourage that transformation, the emergence of who we were truly created to be, from the inside out.  I’ve been watching a physical picture of that in Birungi Suizen.  His sharp bony face and curled body had a certain reptilian quality when he came in.  Over the last week, he’s reminded me of chameleons, who molt as they grow, shedding one skin as a new one replaces it from the inside.  His scabby oozing outer layer peeled off and from underneath grew a healthier version.  He’s gained over a kilo, which for him is a 20% increase in body weight.  He’s getting feistier, more alert, hungry.  He’s talking.  As the medicine and milk went deep into his body, he was slowly transformed from the inside out, and the real Birungi is now emerging.  This kind of transformation takes time, a lot of time, and feeding, and care.  But when it does happen, it is worth the effort.  (Matte stood up Friday, still a bag of bones but less in pain, a hint of energy returning; when we backed off on the sedation for Ngonzi Christopher his tetanus-induced dyspnea worsened so he’s getting more valium, but hanging in there, thanks for praying for them too).  As frustrating as it is to deal with malnutrition and all it’s complicated mess of family dysfunction and poverty and oppression and evil . . . The reward sometimes comes, watching resurrection in a slow time-lapse of day to day glimpses.

And I want to see that in the other two main spheres of my life, family and team.  A good family and a good team are that TRUE COMMUNITY where the squeezing conformity of the world is released, and God’s glory can be nurtured and revealed in each person.  It is also a privilege, a slow but sure one, to watch my kids and team mates emerge and transform.  Yesterday the Pierces moved into the “headmaster’s house”, the home the Bartkoviches had occupied for many years.  Before they moved, they hired a work crew to do major renovations, knocking down walls, changing doorway patterns, subtracting some cabinets and adding others, painting everything an invigorating green.  I like the result, but more importantly the freedom to make those changes allows them to move into a position as themselves, not squeezed into the mold of those who went before.   Naomi danced around the mess of boxes and books and dust and sticky not-yet-dry varnish in delight, telling me this is really HER house, in a chattering out-of-the-shell way that amazed me.  She felt the new look reflected her choices, expressed the Pierce uniqueness, and that gave her joy.  (And I found out as we organized in her room that we are kindred spirits in not liking our sheets tucked in our beds when we sleep).  

As missionaries we are in double jeopardy of the squeeze, or maybe triple:  we have our culture-of-origin ideas about what is right that sometimes seem more important than they should as we flounder in the strangeness of a foreign land.  We have the strong squeeze of the host culture, often a place where the rules punish deviation harshly as  a survival mechanism for marginalized people to maintain identity.  And we have the added burden of being public spectacles and objects of curiosity whose lives and choices can be mistaken for representing God’s ways.  How we need the humor and joy and freedom of community, the team a place where each person can emerge in God’s image, not America’s, or Bundibugyo’s, or World Harvest Mission’s.  That takes inner feeding, time, and courage as leaders.  I pray for that.