Global Urban Trek Journal - June 2001
From the Directorby Scott Bessenecker
The first Global Urban Trek, in 2001, was the result of over 2 1/2 years of work, prayer and planning. During this time, Scott Bessenecker was at the helm. As the Director of the Global Urban Trek, Scott shared with us some of his musings, hopes, and prayers.
June 1, 2001
Last Sunday I went to "the Father's Touch" - our church's prayer and worship time - in order to get prayed up for the Trek . It was so encouraging to hear prophetic words of reassurance that God's hand was with the Global Urban Trek and the poor to whom we are going. I felt such a surge of adrenaline. Then someone said that I was supposed to stand in the gap for the poor of these cities and to intercede for them. As I began to pray for Mexico City I thought of what the staff person at the street children program told us. He said the latest census estimated more than 140,000 children lived on the streets. I can still remember them in the subway. Especially the little boy of about ten who was squatting down hugging his knees and crying. I think of that boy often. I was in such a hurry that day, rushing to catch the Green line in order to make the next appointment. I ran right by him. I wanted to stop but didn't want to inconvenience the people I was with. The picture of him and the sound of his sobs stick in my mind. When I prayed last Sunday, I began feeling deep grief. I started to cry. I prayed, "Oh Lord, you have promised in your Word to defend the cause of the fatherless. Why won't you come to their rescue!" I pleaded and pleaded with him to make good on his promises.
The next night Janine and I sat down with our 10 year old daughter Hannah to watch Ann Frank. We watched the horror of the holocaust through the eyes of this 15 year old girl. I cried then too. Last night I dreamt about Dad. In my dream he said that he could not believe in the Christian God because of the level of evil and suffering that existed. In my dream I was so full of anxiety that I was shaking.
Lately I've been thinking about level of freedom God has given human beings. Freedom to make choices that can either build up or destroy lives. Real actions with real consequences. No safety nets. No training wheels. No protective force field. The suffering of the world is not a reflection of God's impotence but of his disdain for human puppet shows. If it was his good pleasure to have a creature that could willingly reciprocate his love and choose to extend mercy and kindness to others, then that creature would also need to be able to embrace wickedness and partake of injustice. Otherwise love and mercy and kindness would be programmed actions. We'd be little more than screensavers of flesh and blood that show the same pretty pictures over and over. Not because we want to, nor because we have any ability to discern what is beautiful, but simply because we operate according to a pre-described pattern.
At church last Sunday we looked at the story Jesus told about a rich man who had no mercy on a beggar named Lazarus who sat outside his gate and "longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table" (Luke 16:19-31). In that story, Jesus describes a justice that is ultimate and final. It is also a justice that does not play out in this life. Lazarus stepped out of this life and into a place of comfort while the rich man stepped into a place of agony. In the story the rich man begs for Lazarus to return from the dead and warn his brothers. He is told that his brothers would not be convinced, "even if someone rises from the dead."
I believe in the historical fact of Jesus' resurrection. His resurrection proves ultimate justice is on it's way. Perhaps I should not only pray for those like Lazarus who lay outside the gates of the rich "covered in sores," but also for those of us on the other side of the gate who are "dressed in fine linen and feast sumptuously every day."
May God convince those of us who are rich in this life that he will bring ultimate justice, so that perhaps we turn from our callousness and respond to the cries of the poor.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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