Sending love to the frontlines

"I think I'll create this person to live a relatively safe and boring life, attending a job everyday that they feel no purpose or enjoyment for, whilst having mostly average relationships with a small amount of peole who happen to be very similar to them".... Said God about nobody ever in the history of the human race.

I feel like I'm at a significant tipping point in my life that everyone experiences at some point, often in their mid to late twenties. When you're young,everybody wants to change the world. Everybody has big dreams. Kids will naturally believe their life is for something important,  from curing cancer to exploring Mars to being batman for real. As we get older these dreams are often refined slightly, but the adrenaline, naivety and feeling of invincibility that youth possess keeps them in the zone of passionate dreaming.

And then you graduate high school,  maybe get a degree, find a job... and suddenly you stumble onto this vulnerable tipping zone between changing the world and settling down. [Disclaimer] By settling down I don't mean getting married, buying a house and having kids.
No, I mean a settling down of the soul.
When it's too much effort to get fired up about something enough to ask questions and do research. When you thought about being a part of something but it was easier to stay home and watch Netflix. When the things you used to want are now often dismissed as unrealistic or idealistic.

Friend, I beg you, don't waste your life! We are made to invest, create, fight for something, feel deeply about injustice... There is something that you, with your unique combination of personality,  skills, resources and perspectives are able to offer to the world. Nobody else can sub in for you on that one. God doesn't make back up humans in case the first ones would rather take it easy!

I understand the hesitation people have, feeling like they don't really know what they are passionate about, or feel like it's too big of a dream to know how to start... so here are some small steps that can help ignite something in you that will start burning.

• Write a list of the things that you see in the world that make you feel uneasy, sad, frustrated or want to throw and break things. For me, a few of those were Fair trade injustices, human trafficking,  the foster care system, urban poverty,  christian apathy, youth suicide and non sustainable use of resources.... this is just a tiny example though, there are so so many things worth going after out there! 
• Research and get educated about one of the things you wrote down. For some that might look like watching a documentary and reading stuff online, for others it might mean basing a whole degree around that.
• Spend time with people who are passionate... it doesn't have to neccesarily be about the same thing you have in mind,  but I've found that being around people who have vision, drive and action causes those same things to rise up in me
• And finally,  do SOMETHING. Anything that is even vaguely related to something you're passionate about.You can reshape and refine the direction of it later, but you can't steer something until it's moving. For me, my dream is to help tear down and recontruct the complex global systems that allow poverty and injustice to persist.  Now I can't wake up one morning and get cracking on that without being paralyzed by how overwhelmingly huge that mission is. So I'm starting somewhere. I'm moving into the "ghetto" of the inner city in Vancouver for a year to listen to the stories of those who have been oppressed and marginalized and to better understand the layers and systems that contribute to generational western poverty.  You don't have to move across the world, you can join a local action group, start conversations to raise awareness, sponsor a child, talk to people affected by a certain issue, volunteer,  learn.... the opportunities are endless! 

"There are those who will say yes, and there are those who prefer to say no. Those who say yes, are rewarded by the adventures they have and those who say no are rewarded with the safety they attain" - Keith Johnson

Soul Oxidants

"The Lord is my shepherd,  I have everything I need. He leads me beside still waters and let's me rest in green meadows. He restores my soul."
Psalm 23

During my time here in the States I have been living and spending time with people who have an amazing understanding of health, nutrition,  exercise and how to make your body function at its best... they have taught me about a phenomenon called oxidation that occurs in the body (hang in with me, it's a little science for you but it's worth it)

Everyday the things we do such as exercise, talking, breathing dirty air, eating certain foods, even breathing and simply being alive.... causes free radicals to be released in your body. It sounds like a wild hippy, but is actually atoms with unbonded electrons that are produced through chemical reactions with oxygen in your cells. These free radicals are constantly bombarding your tissues like tiny bullets tens of thousands of times a day, and begin to cause damage. This process is what causes DNA  damage, early aging, and can lead to diseases such as arthritis, heart disease and cancer.

Thankfully we have a wonderfully designed protection system in the form of antioxidants! For those of you who think you can only find these in homemade green tea, think again, all fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants!  An antioxidant is a molecule that is able to bind to those nasty free radical electrons so it doesn't cause damage to your tissues. Think of the spinach as taking the bullet for your heart cells!
You can't avoid free radicals,  but you can ensure that your diet is rich in foods full of antioxidants and prevent as much damage as possible... shameless plug for the superheroes of the food pyramid, fruits and veggies!

Anyway, it got me thinking about how being alive brings you face to face with what I've called soul oxidants, the free radicals of the heart. For sure there are big things that launch an attack on our heart, tragedy and unexpected loss, wars and poverty and losing that which is important to you...
But there are also the small things that you may not notice always that are causing damage to the deep parts of you, your soul. The pressure to perform and produce at work, the effort it takes to be happy when you don't feel it. Angry drivers, delayed test results, disconnection with those you love most. Finances that seem to always be a little under, having friends who are hurting,  when you actually care about climate change but think you're the only one, winter days that never let the sun through.... Just being alive in a broken and hurting world exposes your soul to these damaging oxidants.

And parallel to the physical, we need an antioxidant of the soul.  While I've been here, almost everyday I've been for a walk to pray. No music, no cellphone, no distractions... I just walk and invite Jesus to walk with me, and we talk through the day, about people that are important to me. We talk about politics and wars and how I want to get better at push ups... about my friends who don't have a relationship with Him yet, about money and work and community. And I listen, this is something I'm trying to get better at since I have a tendency to talk too much and not give Him a chance to speak!  
But this time has been the richest source of soul oxidant, a healing,  daily balm that means all those other things don't damage my soul. Yes they're still there and I cannot avoid them, but when I spend time with my Father, He already absorbed all of that brokenness and damage when He died on the cross, so I am able to replace the weariness of the world with the lightness of His Spirit! Like the words of King David in Psalm 23, He restores my soul!