Getting it together
Being people vs. doing projects
By Laurie Oswald Robinson
For five decades, I just didn’t get it. As a Mennonite kid, I went to dozens of missionary slide shows. Most memorable were the cookies after the service. The message of how important it is to globally share Jesus’ gospel failed to clear the sugar fog.
As a college student, I lived in Haiti as part of my Study Service Term at Goshen (Indiana) College. A bit more understanding seeped in as I saw children playing in a city dump in Port-au-Prince. And yet, watching tiny people play in the stink of rotting garbage evoked tears, but no real mission passion.
This July, at the Mennonite World Conference gathering, God snuck in the back door of my long nap.
That’s when I listened to James Krabill, Mennonite Mission Network senior executive for Global Ministries, share a quote from John Driver’s
Community and Commitment:
“[The Hebrew understanding of shalom] covers human welfare, health and well-being in both spiritual and material aspects. … Peace was not merely the absence of armed conflict. Rather, shalom … contributed to human well-being in all its dimensions. Peace resulted when people lived together according to God’s intentions. Peace, justice and salvation are synonymous terms for general well-being created by right social relationships.”
I finally got it: mission isn’t just about
doing loving things—it’s about
being loving people, engaging in healthy, healing and hopeful relationships with others across the street and around the world.
A song refrain I heard at the MWC gathering hit the nail deeper into my heart, where I hope it forever causes the pain of longing for shalom to reign: “God bless to us our bread, and give bread to those who are hungry, and hunger for justice to those who are fed …” “Bendice, Señor, nuestro pan, y da pan a los que tienen hambre y hambre de justicia a los que tienen pan…” (from the
MWC International Songbook #28; original Spanish by Osvaldo Catena).
May this issue of Beyond help us all to get it—together.