Out of the Huddle

Mamush
Good deeds

It’s like there is this parallel place on the other side of the world. Hope is white. Mamush is black. Hope lives with her parents in suburban California and Mamush lives with his parents in a hut in Ethiopia.

Hope struggles with enough play time with her Barbie’s. Mamush struggles with hunger pains.

Hope is 5 years old. She’s my daughter. Mamush has the same birthday as Hope, he’s 5 years old and he’s not my son. Hope recently got vaccinations in order to be allowed to attend kindergarten. Mamush lives in a town that’s infested with the AIDS virus… school may not be an option for him.

I’ve been blogging about community lately. Mamush is the result of the little community that I’m deeply involved with. We’ve “adopted” Mamush through World Vision.

One Sunday night we were looking through the bible at portions that discussed “good deeds”. We ran across Ephesians chapter 2. We read in the passage that we’ve been saved by Grace. We reminisced about how we’ve heard that phrase a million times in ‘church’ settings. I rambled about how I think too many churches are huddled together reminding each other the we’re “Saved by Grace” – they sing their songs about it, do small group bible studies about it, and put it on their bulletins… but too many churches missed the crescendo.

Crescendo – a musical term… you know, where the music builds to a climatic moment of glory, bliss, and beauty. Arguably the Crescendo is the point of many musical pieces and the rest of the music is meant to lead us there.

Yes, we’ve been saved by grace… but don’t stop the music early! According to the scriptures, we’ve been saved by grace for a reason – TO DO GOOD WORKS.

Here’s what I believe – deeply believe.
“Jesus calls people to be a compelling force for good in the world. God uses people as agents of change, to relieve suffering and fight injustice, living out the transforming message of the resurrected Jesus. I believe that the church is at its best when it serves, sacrifices, and loves, caring about the things God cares about. We were created to live for something larger than ourselves.”

So, on that wonderful Sunday night, we decided to stop talking about doing “good deeds” and we decided to take some action. That’s where Mamush comes in. He’s a result of a community of Christ followers deciding to actually follow the Way of Christ. We just sent our first check to him this week. I have to tell you, if felt GOOD! Since that day, we’ve seen one of our people in our community go to Africa on a missions trip and we’re planning a time where we can help to build a habitat for humanity house here in Fresno.

Parallel worlds collide. Mamush in Africa. Hope is in Fresno. I’m praying that Mamush would begin to have some hope.