Even if they call me mad! Keeping it together.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to do many personality profile tests, skills inventories, and aptitude measurement tests.  Of course each one of these has had some form of bias built into it. However, there have also been some common threads that run throughout all of the results.

Let me share some of those here:

1.  I am a people's person.  The Meyers Briggs test suggests that I am strongly extroverted - I get my energy from people (and in my case more people give more energy).  I love being with people!  I love to hear all about them and share myself with them in return.

2.  I am an 'activist' in the sense that I get behind causes and try to get others in joining me to get things done.  Some tests call this kind of personality an 'influencer' - someone who discovers movements, causes or ideas and then influences others to follow the same path.  Whether it is a social cause, an event, an idea or some new technology I am constantly acting like an 'evangelist'.  I am far more likely to see the positive elements of persons, movements and technologies than others, and I will extol those virtues to others.  Over the years I have encouraged people to join Churches, accept Christ's love and grace, use Apple Macs, take up cycling, start blogging, attend events, start writing, fight for causes, read certain books... I'm an activist at heart!

3.  I am non-conformist by nature.  I tend towards the 'thin spaces' in my thought life and choices I am not afraid to be 'out front on my own'.  I know others who feel insecure when they are not understood, or if they feel that they don't fit the prevIling mindset.  I prefer to think, dress, talk, act and live a little differently.  Sure, this can lead to bring misunderstood or judged.  But, it's the way I'm wired!  It has also been a great blessing.  There is much less competition for space where I am!  Most people clamour for the middle.  I have had many blessed opportunities as a result writing, thinking and acting upon uncommon things.  I am thankful for this trait.

4.  Another aspect of my personality that frequently features is that of 'bridge building'.  I often connect people, ideas, groups etc., from very different perspectives with one another.  It is a joy to see new opportunities emerge for others, new ideas come to the fore, and new relationships form where persons may not have connected or met.  It takes some effort to do this - often people distrust one another, or hold such rigid convictions about their point of view, or the perspective of another that it takes some time, grace and effort to facilitate a safe engagement and a trusted space for encounter. But in the end it is worth it.

In short, I have come to understand that part of my ministry - an aspect that runs throughout most of my life regardless of the task I'm performing, the place in which I work, and the persons among whom I work, is this:  I am radically inclusive.

I have a strong desire to bring people together in Jesus Christ - there are none of us that do not require grace.  There are none of us that are free from weakness.  There are none of us who are not loved by God.

And so, while some try to exclude I have discovered that I have a natural propensity to include.  While some try to build up walls, I have a supernatural desire to deconstruct them.  Whether you are liberal or conservative, a proponent of the social Gospel or an evangelical, it doesn't matter, there is enough space for all of us in Christ's love.  

This is something that I can live for!  I'm wired for it!  I am radically inclusive!

One of the things that I have noticed is that we tend towards accepting people who are like us and look away from those who are different.  Liberals are inclusive of those who share our views, whilst conservatives are inclusive of those who share their views.  This is not the way of Christ!  It is only a few steps from rejection the position of another, to rejecting the other.  We have so many examples of this in history from which we can learn.

Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down.
- Archbishop Oscar Romero, an advocate for the poor and marginalized, was assassinated thirty years ago today while giving Mass in El Salvador.

So, I want to invite you to allow the grace of Christ to give you love for those who are different from yourself.  Ask God to help you to love those persons, even as God loves them.  

Today I heard that the President of El Salvador has apologized for the assassination of Arch Bishop Romero.  The visuals of El Salvador showed how this Christian man has inspired Catholics, evangelicals, politicians, and even people of different faiths.  There is something of the Spirit of Christ that is at work through his legacy of love.  I find him truly inspiring.  I first came to hear about Bishop Romero when my friend Dr Larry Kaufman (the head of the Redemptrist order in South Africa) gave me the book 'Romero' when I was doing some graduate study at Rhodes University.  I read it during lent 1996 - it transformed my theology and my life!

Here I am in Malaysia, a different geographical location, a different culture(s), a different climate, and even some different expressions of Christianity - it is my joy to work towards building an inclusive Christian community! [citation needed] ;-) It is wonderful!  Thank you for the hospitality - I LOVE being back in this place among these wonderful people.  

We're here for two days and then head to Singapore for some speaking engagements and meetings, and then to Hong Kong before heading home!!