3June2015 Two Hours with Yacob

“55 years wasted.  What is there to show for it?”  That’s a heck of a perspective given the number of wars alone Yacob has survived.  He didn’t seem very grateful.  Instead he was bitter.  Not the answer you expect when you ask a man about his life, especially a believer.

Honestly he looked a lot older than his self professed age.  Five and a half decades had given his face the texture of eight wale corduroy, especially around his eyes.  Years of chain-smoking Winston knockoffs hadn’t helped matters.  Day after day behind the taxi’s wheel in the often congested and always stressful traffic of Beirut had taken their toll as well.  Yacob was much older than his birth certificate indicated.

For over an hour, in a bumper to bumper, at times bumper on bumper, logjam, my driver railed against the, social injustices, financial woes, political corruption and even the food quality of his homeland.  To make matters worse, he got lost trying to find the ancient coffee shop I had my sights on.  How could a eighty-one year-old caffeine purveyor be this difficult to find!  Surely he would blow a gasket.  Rather he looked to me to see my reaction.  Rather than getting angry I just smiled.  “Maffi mushkala,” (No problem) I said, “Let’s go somewhere else.”  He couldn’t believe it and he actually smiled.   

For another hour he told funny stories, slapped me on the knee and talked about how happy he was to have me in the car.  To top it off, rather than taking me to my next destination, he pulled up to a coffee shop and forbid me to part ways from him without allowing him to buy me a real cup of coffee. 

As I bid him adieu, Yacob clasped my hand like old friends, gave me a business card, on which he scribbled his home phone number, and pled call him when I came back to town. 

Not sure what happened in our brief time together that changed Yacob from grumpy old man to jovial, friendly jokester but I think it had something to do with being willing to listen, laughing off getting lost and sharing a good cup of coffee together.  Maybe those three things could go a long way to creating peace in the Middle East?

1June2015 Loaves & Fishes

The war in Syria has created nearly 4 million refugees.  That’s four million people that have been forcibly relocated from their homes to another host country, due to imminent threat of death.  4,000,000!  It's so easy to look past that number.  

When I was growing up, the McDonalds in our city had a board under it's giant, neon "M" that gave a tally of how many burgers they had sold. It stated "Over ______ million served," the number changed periodically to keep up with the count.  Eventually they gave up and changed it to "Billions and Billions Served."   Of course this number is so much more important than sandwiches.  Each of those seven digits represents a living, breathing, wishing, dreaming person.  4,000,000! 

It's easy to gloss over that number.  It's just as easy to be overcome by the colossal scale of the issue. Where we live and work, we interact with said refugees on a daily basis.  Each one has a story, most are heartbreaking, many are gut-wrenching, some you wish you could un-hear.  We're constantly asked for money, food or help with problems (usually medical and usually something to do with children).  Honestly it's overwhelming. Not because we want to be insulated from the crisis and not because we don't want to help. it's just that the pain is so immense, the hurt is so vast.  We afteral are just one family.
How utterly silly to think like this!  One, we are not alone.  There are many others engaging those made vulnerable by the war.  Two, God is bigger.  It's possible to say that without sounding trite, right?  HE IS BIGGER!!!  
A couple days ago, I was studying the story of the feeding of the five thousand found in John chapter six.  A huge, hungry crowd surrounded Jesus.  The problem - Immense! The expense -Vast!  There were a couple different responses.  Philip's was to throw money at it.  He quickly realized that the need was greater than their purse.  Andrew looked for a more pragmatic approach.  He found some food to distribute but it was barely enough for one grown man's meal.  Jesus' reaction is of course perfect and one we should earnestly try to emulate.  Rather than panic, He took what was available, gave thanks to the Provider and distributed the food.  God multiplied the resources and Jesus refused to waste them.  Such a great example for His followers in the face of insufficiency.  Praise Him for what you have, use it to minister to others and don't waste anything.  If we could all just to that....