wouldn’t
warm to this idea of returning property, forgiving
loans, and saying goodbye to free labor and the comforts
of wealth.
It’s
hypocritical, though, for me to question ancient Israel’s
failure to practice Jubilee unless I let its light
shine on my own decisions. In other words, Jubilee
is one of God’s great ideas for all of us; so,
what am I willing to do about it?
My
wife, Shelly, and I are taking what we hope is a small
step toward answering this question for ourselves.
We met while students at Princeton Theological Seminary,
and since marrying two years ago, we’ve been
living and working in the Princeton area— Shelly
at a church and I on staff at the seminary. Now we’re
giving up our jobs, our apartment, about 80 percent
of our income, and our proximity to friends and family.
We’ve sold much of what we own and put the rest
in a friend’s attic. In January, we’re
moving to Nandimba, a village in Haiti, to live in
a room in a Haitian family’s home as we work
on learning Creole and Haitian culture. Initally we’ll
participate in the Apprenticeship in Shared Living
(ASL) program; down the road we’ll join the
Beyond Borders and Limyè Lavi staff in Haiti.
Late
some nights, however, as our flight to Port-au-Prince
on January 7 approaches, as consciousness fades and
sleep creeps in, this idea of moving to Haiti seems
lunacy on the scale of Jubilee. Which is to say, the
implications are dizzying.
But
I trust it makes sense in God’s order of things,
even if it doesn’t make sense in light of “the
American dream.” Jubilee isn’t the reason
most people do this kind of thing. They (and we) do
it for adventure, for faith, for escape, for love,
for knowledge, for vocation. And Jubilee is not the
main reason Shelly and I are going. But Jubilee definitely
gives a word to some of the inexplicable joy we feel
as we head to Haiti.
This
joy has something to do with our calling and with
living what we believe. It also has to do with the
Jubilee idea that our wellbeing is wrapped up in the
wellbeing of others.
Part
of what frees us to do this is the good news that
God loves and cares about us, that nothing can separate
us from God’s love—neither height nor
depth, neither malaria nor dengue fever. Without that
good news, the fear and cost of this journey might
outweigh the hope and benefits. But with that good
news in mind, it would be foolish not to respond to
the idea of Jubilee. What do we have to lose? “For
to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”
is Saint Paul’s helpful and challenging formula
for making decisions like these. (Phil. 1:21)
The
logic of Jubilee won’t compel everyone to join
Beyond Borders and move to Haiti. But it should compel
seemingly nonsensical behavior, such as giving sacrificially
to the poor, rejecting the cultural pressure to hoard,
venturing beyond what is comfortable, and valuing
the happiness of others as much as our own.
God
has some crazy ideas. May we have the abandon to live
them.
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See
Kent's online Haiti journal. |
