I was talking with a friend the other day of how it's easy to ride through inner city Philadelphia and become spiritually drained. Think of it; the drugs, the poverty, the fatherless (kids as well as adults), the violence and exalt of violence and that hopeless look that plagues so many is all enough to bring tears in just a short ride through any inner city neighborhood in Philadelphia. But when I read the Bible, particularly the book of Romans I see that total depravity runs deeper than the lens of the naked eye can see:
0as it is written:
"None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one."
"Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive."
"The venom of asps is under their lips."
"Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known."
"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
(Romans 3:10-20)
I know that sin is deceitful (Heb. 3:13) and so naturally it appears in ways that do not appear sinful. Take for example a philanthropist, this is someone who seeks to promote the welfare of others with the donation of his or her money and time. So to the naked eye it would appear that this person has in them some form of altruism. But, Paul lets us know that it's entirely possible to do acts that appear good and in actuality are carried out through some other kind of motivation:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3)
So, when I drive through the obvious depravity in West Philadelphia, over 76, into the swanky suburbs of Roxboro and farther out into Montgomery County where the houses are spaced out, the grass is green and neatly cut, kids are playing in clean, "safe" streets, and dogs are being walked where the poop is being scooped instead of left to be stepped in by some unfortunate passer by and I think of Romans 3, 1 Corinthians 13, Isaiah 64:6, the entire book of John, etc. . . .and by God's grace I can, at times, drive through the sparkling deceit of the suburbs, cry and be drained the same way I can drive through North Philadelphia and be drained. Because, the truth is that the suburbs are just as sad, helpless and desolate as the crack infested corner in the hood. It's the same degree of depravity just a different cover. One wears its unmistakable pain out in the open for all to see while the other covers it up with gadgets, cars, lawns, decorations, fake smiles, security systems, etc. . .all to give the appearance of happiness in an effort to avoid confrontation and maintain an external happiness. So I ask myself; how should I approach this? How do I missionally engage a plastic world, a world that covers up cover up. How do I look at the suburbs through the lense of the cross like Christ on Calvary?
An older and wiser friend told me that when Christ looked down from His cross and saw that multitude of people along with the thief at His side and the Roman soldier he was looking through the lens of the cross. He didn't see a bunch of unsaved people, Christ was the most hopeful of hopeful people; He Himself WAS and IS hope. And so he saw a people redeemed. That is the lens of the cross-a lens that can see a redeemed people. A lens that can look out into the depravity of the "beautiful" suburbs and see people coming to Christ.
It seems this blog has become more of a prayer now than a statement or a question. I'm getting ready to move into a neighborhood that fringes on the suburbs of Philadelphia so I'm asking God for grace to not grow hard and cold hearted but that He'd give me a heart of flesh to engage the people around me with the Gospel. To not grow content and satisfied and comfortable with "plasticity" of clean streets, quiet nights,and all the other numbing agents that come along with. I need grace to become drained and broken the same way I'm broken while driving down Kensington Avenue and realizing that every third person quite possibly is a crack head. God give me that brokenness, give me that lens of Your Cross, give me a servants heart, and give me contentment in Christ Alone.
