"My book is also interested in the relation of the tragic and the hope for happiness. A very musical way of thinking. Music is obsessed with these two blunt ideas but it seems miraculously capable of articulating this old drama in ways that are deeply affecting for us. In my book, the tragic is easy enough to say: the idea that the warrior virtues of skillful violence still live within most aspects of our culture. If we need to change that sense of violent virtue in order to restore the human and natural world, where do we start? Ban Grand Theft Auto and Monday night football? Make the CEO's play nice? But there is hope in the intellectual performance of the book itself. Immodestly, I say, "If we can learn to think as originally, as playfully, as powerfully, as dangerously as I have in this book, isn't that a reason for faith in the future?" That is immodest, I confess, but every writer who seeks to do the writer's real job—not confirming the world as it stands but creating a rift in its consciousness, a tear out of which something new can emerge—must be both arrogant and, yes, perhaps deluded in this way. Sorry."- Curtis White
We went undercover as University students for research. A rare incident, and quite an experience; being back in school. It was different this time around. I was on time for class, early even. I didn’t make any friends. And I kept my mouth shut when the professor asked if there were any questions. The laughter was the same however. Education runs deep, as you all may know. I saw a lot more student self-government than had existed in my day, and personal initiative in the confident kids who supervised their own projects. It was refreshing to see that indeed, despite what people think they are, the youth are really very bright. We watched a movie in the Mass Communications class called the Invisible Children, about child soldiers in Sudan. The visual impact it left on me, remained in my dreams. And I got to discussing exactly why we don’t do more, and give more to the places the devil attacks and roams. Africa has forever needed help, but my cushioned life has never warranted it much attention except for forced participation in middle school charities. The part about the movie that struck me the most, was that these children, though they commuted by night into the town to sleep in an overcrowded hospital to avoid being abducted by the rebels at night, they would wake up and still praise God. They thanked God for every day they survived through the night. Kids here, lose their tempers so easily, stomp and scream and declare that they hate their parents. I wake up and think about what I’m going to wear or eat, most days. We certainly do not praise God that we made it through the night without being dragged into the bush and psychologically distilled into a demonic murderer who gets headaches when we don’t see blood for more than a day. We don’t live in a place where, “fear is an understatement.” We can’t even imagine how this land lives, and even how they love God. They love God more than we do, I have no doubt about that. The thing is when the movie ended, the students went back to worrying about t-shirt payments and disorder. How many of them left the room thinking about what they’d seen. Do we feel like we’ve seen it all. And if so, when will it be enough for us to want to walk out of the room? I hope it doesn’t get to that. I’ve never been very charitable, in fact I can be outright selfish most of the time. I show my love for others through gifts and grand gestures at times, when in fact they are filled with selfish intentions. Obedience to God is greater than sacrifice, isn’t it? Which would mean that my setting my heart and actions in the right place, had to come before any amount of truly giving. I think it’s the same for most people. It’s hard to give when we live to save enough money to blow this all open. But given the choice of being a witness to a soul for Christ, and a million dollars: there’s only one thing we want. God prepares us for that, it’s how the real world works us for that promotion. Success that lies, really lies. We are commissioned to love our neighbors and yet why are so few Christians called to help the poor? It is because we aren’t ready. Or me, at least. I’ve not been ready, and it’s a sorry excuse I know, but the truth. I’m getting ready though and it’s going to stir me up even more than talking about it last night till late. We don’t spend enough talking about these things, even less time is spent on it since I’ve moved back to Malaysia. It’s just like this year’s young adult’s camp theme about being the real size God meant for you to be: Bigger. We think the things we do are so scaled when really, they are tiny. And it’s time we stopped doing small things and started seeing the bigger picture. Would we see a difference then? I am see an inkling of this new thing creeping in, this new kind of love. And God gives us the right about of water to add. You’ll see.
