Can We Stop Xenophobia? Part 2
We live in such a complex world with so many deep issues. We are confronted with this reality everyday, and have been experiencing it deeply once again in South Africa with the recent xenophobic attacks. I have been struggling to figure out what to do about it. Will a Twitter campaign change things? Will abstract posters about the value of human life make a difference? And what am I to do? I am not a foreigner in South Africa. What should my response be?
I recently started a new part time job, where I met an amazing lady from the Congo. Mary* is one of the friendliest ladies I have met in awhile, the kind of person that always has a smile on her face. I've only had a few brief encounters with Mary, and I don't even know her full story, but she has already made a lasting impression on me. She recently come out both the industry of prostitution, as well struggling with a drug addiction. She came to share her story with some of the teenage girls that my colleagues work with who live in the Cape Flats. It was amazing to watch how deeply the girls were able to relate with her. As Mary shared her story in honesty, the girls could actually receive her love and words of wisdom because Mary has been in their place before. She got trapped in a broken world – but she also got out. I never had that experience. I have other brokenness in my life which will touch other people, affecting lasting change.
Maybe the way we change people's minds about deep rooted ideas like ‘These foreigners steal our jobs,’ or ‘These outsiders are the reason I am suffering,’ is by creating space for these people to actually sit down with each other and simply listen to their story. It might actually be very similar to their own story – and a new relational connection is made.
We can theorise, discuss, and tweet our thoughts about Xenophobia as much as we want. Hopefully it makes a positive change in someone’s life. But I wonder if long term change will only come – and last – when we as the body of Christ can facilitate safe conversations between those who are affected by xenophobia. And unfortunately we can not do this from the safety of our own homes. We can only do it within context of the relationships in our lives. Who do you know that is affected by xenophobia? Do you know someone who knows someone? Be a part of the personal conversation. That is how the body of Christ will affect this issue. These conversations simply can't be mass produced. They can only happen in small scale personal encounters. Connecting those from opposite sides in small numbers, convincing them of the value in sharing their stories in real, personal ways, not hiding behind abstract ideas or arguments, is one of the only ways forward that I can imagine.
May the unconditional love of Christ lead us as we love, and help others learn to love, as well.
*Her name was changed to protect her identity.
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The Way of Love
1 Corinthian 13:1 - 13 (The Message)
“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, ‘Jump’ and it jumps, but I don't have love, I'm nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't have love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want that it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut.
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always ‘me first,’
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always look for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies.
Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us.
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:
Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love."