Kony 2012 and Nouwen

So, I don't think I'll include a photo unless I can think of an art piece that shows human muddled-dom....

A lot has been going on in social media related to Joseph Kony who is a maniacal man who caused (and at times still causes) much harm to children and the marginalized tribes in Northern Uganda.

But I won't try to explain that or give my solutions to that particular problem.  Rather, I thought I'd share the Nouwen passage that I thought relates to this recent Invisible Children/Kony phenomena.

"The disciples speak of their actions as manifestations of God's active presence.  They act not to prove their power, but to show God's power; they act not to redeem people but to reveals God's redemptive grace; they act not to create a new world, but to open hearts and ears to the one who sits on the throne and says, "Now I am making the whole of creation new" (Rv. 21:5)


In our society which equates worth with productivity, patient action is very difficult.  We tend to be so concerned with doing something that is worthwhile, bringing about changes, planning, organizing, structuring and restructuring that we often seem to forget that it is not we who redeem, but God.  To be busy, "where the action is" and "on top of things" often seem to have become goals themselves.  We then have forgotten that our vocation is not to give visibility to our powers but to God's compassion.  


Action as a way of compassionate life is a difficult discipline precisely because we are so in need of recognition and acceptance.  This need can easily drive us to conform to the expectation that we will offer something "new." In a society that is so keen on new encounters, so eager for new events, and so hungry for new experiences, it is difficult no to be seduced into impatient activism.  Often, we are hardly aware of this seduction, especially since what we are doing is so obviously "good and religious."  But even setting up a relief program, feeding the hungry, and assisting the sick could be more an expression of our own needs than of God's call.   


But let us not be too moralistic about it: We can never claim pure motives, and it is better to act with and for those who suffer than to wait  until we have our own needs completely under control.  However, it is important to remain critical of our own activist tendencies.  When our own need begins to dominate our actions, long-range service becomes difficult and we soon become exhausted, burned out and even embittered by our efforts. 


The most important resource for counteracting the constant temptation to slip into activism is the knowledge that in Christ everything has been accomplished.  This knowledge should be understood not as intellectual insight, but as an understanding in faith.  As long as we continue to act as if the salvation of the world depends on us, we lack the faith by which mountains can be moved.  In Christ, human suffering and pain have already been accepted and suffered; in him our broken humanity has been reconciled and led into the intimacy of the relationship with the Trinity.  Our action, therefore, must be understood as a discipline by which we make visible what has already been accomplished.  Such action is based on the faith that we walk on solid ground even when we are surrounded by chaos, confusion, violence and hatred." (Chapter 9, Action, from Compassion)

If I thought I could express this any better than he does, I would.  But I can't.  I trust that many or you who know me and know our life in Uganda can understand the relevance of this and I hope it is also a source of encouragement and a reminder of our role to "reveal God's redemptive grace"; to give visibility to God's compassion, not our "powers".