Victor Chininin Buele

“All you need is love!” As I was praying this morning, an upcoming wedding came to mind, and I was remembering how an exercise often done at weddings is to take the word “love” in a critical New Testament passage and replace it.  Let me explain what I mean:

Original:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7 ESV)

Then, the well-intentioned preacher would ask you to do this:
Victor is patient and kind; Victor does not envy or boast; Victor is not arrogant or rude. Victor does not insist on his own way; Victor is not irritable or resentful; Victor does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Victor bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7 Amended ESV)

And then you get to stand or sit there certainly sorry you did this because you know it’s not true.  You just lost it at the cake lady or the photographer or the guy with the gigantic iPad taking a picture as your wife walked down the aisle and messed up your beautiful picture that was going to make or break the marriage… But you smile because the show must go on!

So, then the well-intentioned preacher tells you to do this:
Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on his own way; Jesus is not irritable or resentful; Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7 Amended ESV)

And because Jesus is the perfect one who actually is all these things you can have hope that He will hold you fast, that He will carry you, that He will do the work necessary to present you blameless at the last day.  There is nobody more invested in you being as He is than Jesus is.  He loved you to the uttermost.  He died for you to cover for every evil thing you have ever and will ever do, think, or half-ass your way through.  He died in love, so that you can love.  Truly love.

As I was listening to President Trump last night go on his usual rant, this time up in Montana, one particular section of this passage came to mind: “Donald J. is not irritable or resentful.” He went on and on, fed by his grudge with Senator Tester, on why Admiral Jackson wasn’t ultimately appointed Secretary of Veterans Affairs.  And as I walked through the passage again, I want to make one very critical point.

Yes, obviously, President Trump can arise some very primary emotions in you. He is very far from being patient.  I don’t need to produce examples for that.  He is definitely not kind given that the insults list continues to grow (admit it, they are third-grade-playground sticky… they stick). Knowing how bad I am with envy, I am sure he can’t be worse than me at that, but envy is probably there, probably was there in that moment when President Obama made fun of him at the White House Correspondents Dinner that one time and made him long to take over the Oval Office. Who knows!  President Trump loves to boast.  Always has.  I hope it’s not an always will.  The gospel is that powerful.  I hope he can hear the gospel one day.  Contrary to what all the talking heads may say, the greatest need President Trump has is to hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and be made new by the Holy Spirit.  Seeing the other day the freed brother pastor pray for the Spirit of God to guide President Trump, I couldn’t agree more with such a request. The Holy Spirit must come and regenerate and transform and give life to our nation’s president.  We should always pray for nothing short of that.  Transformation is possible, most definitely so.  I digress.  Let’s continue: President Trump loves to boast.  He is arrogant and rude.  He definitely insists in his own way, sentencing all of those of us common folks paying large hospital bills a few pennies at a time to higher insurance premiums coming up and higher deductibles to meet, among other things.  He certainly appears to rejoice at wrongdoing if 1% of what we see in the media is true.  And let’s not kid ourselves, there is an allergy to truth. The ironic thing is, he is doing everything he promised he would do, whether you like it of not.  In the middle of all the alleged and seemingly blatant falsehood, he is actually keeping his promises.

So, there.  I agree with you, my friend.  He is pretty bad.  Terrible even.  Very far from what Jesus is.

But you know what? I am still worse.  I actually know my sin and know myself to be worse than what I think he is.  The most terrifying part of the exercise remains me:

I am hardly a patient person at all.  I assume the worst out of people more often than I am called by Jesus to assume the best in them, so I’m not always the kindest person.  I am envious–envious of the rich, envious of the poor, envious of those who travel, envious of those who don’t, envious of those with large savings, and envious of those with mountains of debt, envious of those fake lives on Facebook, envious of the real lives behind the fake lives on Facebook.  I am boastful–worse than Trump.  He at least has a fairly contained list of accomplishments to rant about night after night.  I manufacture new reasons to boast all the time.  And it’s very hard to admit that very Pauline understanding of life that it is not I but the grace of God in me that accomplished them. I am arrogant.  Yesterday I was seemingly just giving an intellectual clause as part of a larger argument, but in the process I destroyed my listener’s opinion and hurt her deeply.  I am rude–just cut me off in the highway when I’m having a “bad day” and see.  I insist in my own way all the time.  And many times I will ridicule your way in some seemingly polite way.  I am irritable, very easily so.  I am resentful.  I keep a record of wrongs.  I know I’m not supposed to, but I am often horrified at how often I can tell date and time of when something was done “to me”–I crave for the vindication that can come to me for these wrongs perpetrated.  I rejoice at my own wrongdoing all the time.

But here is the thing: I am not what I once was, but I am not yet all that I will one day be by the grace and work of the Spirit of God in my life.

I am more patient and more kind every day, being conformed into the image of Christ.  That’s the part you often get to see and admire and respect.  I am growing in killing envy and boasting.  You often hear me boast in the Lord, and that’s because of His great grace to change my evil heart day by day.  I am not as arrogant as I once was, and you often see that through my sharing of things others wouldn’t share with you.  Again, Jesus changing me day by day.  I am not as rude as He changes me to love you all more and more.  I am not always insisting in my own way, and you perhaps compliment me on my ability to listen and respond with empathy.  That’s all Jesus.  I am not as irritable as I once was.  The same thing!  I am not as resentful.  I have learned more and more ways the Spirit of God empowers me to kill bitterness when it’s still seeds being poured into the ground.  I do not rejoice at obvious wrongdoing, and you often hear me giving commentary at how Jesus can change wrongdoing. Again, not I but the grace of God at work within me! You see me rejoicing in the truth, preaching the truth, pleading with you to see the truth.  Again, not me…

Here is the point I promised: Do you yet see how all that irritates the life out of you in Donald J. is because you are the chief of sinners?  President Trump is just the caricature that God has brought into your life of all your pet sins, those you guard closely, those you know are wrong but refuse to admit them, those you turn into culturally-accepted virtues worthy of cultural praise.

And you keep looking for a deliverer.  And while the Democrats will keep failing to give you one and the Republicans, too, all along you long for the fulfillment of this very text.

It is true–you want love.  You do.  

Turn to Him.

Be the beloved of the Lord.

Victor Chininin Buele

Should you read the opinion of somebody who grew up being afraid of the INS (now ICE)? Should you read the opinion of somebody whose blood pressure goes up a bit and starts sweating when he drives by the ICE office downtown St. Louis even though he doesn’t need to go in?  Stories matter, right?  Well, you should read.  Let me tell you why.

I am up at 4:30 AM on a Saturday morning. Why? That should be clear to you by the end of your reading.  But I digress.

La Migra has been part of many horrendous stories in my life.  There always was a story down in Ecuador from a friend or a relative of somebody who had a bad encounter with this institution while they were crossing the Río Grande illegally to go to the United States.  You know the media.  In Ecuador, for decades we’ve been seeing stories like the ones that have recently made you aware of abuses.  And the headlines were always horrible: people shot, murdered, imprisoned, mistreated, killed in the desert.  But like every other person, I grew up thinking, “Well, that may be true, but it won’t happen to me.”

By the grace of God, I never had to leave it all behind and turn myself over to a coyote to carry me through the mountains and valleys, deserts and jungles of the Americas.  Instead, I boarded Continental Airlines flight 750 from Quito to Houston.  I was greeted by an INS officer who lawfully admitted me.

But lawful doesn’t mean easy.

I grew up in the mountains.  First, I needed to go to the coast city of Guayaquil for the most intimidating interview of my life at the U.S. Consulate General. That in itself was the first hardship.  Have you ever tried wearing a long sleeve shirt in Guayaquil? Everything from the security guard to the consular officer was off.  This was the beginning of my encounters with the complete opposite of U.S. justice.  You see, this side of the border you are innocent until proven guilty.  The O.J. Simpsons of the world get to be justified.  Those who can hire an expensive attorney to find reasonable doubt in what a police officer has clearly seen was a murder can go free.  The other side of an encounter with ICE or a consular officer is a very intimidating place.  You are guilty until proven innocent, and innocence is measured at the discretion of the officer.  You are assumed to be lying about your intentions to travel to, remain, and leave the United States unless you can convince the officer that you are telling the truth.  I would travel with every possible document I could think of for years — employment letters, bank records, tax returns, work products, school official letters, a copy of my college degree, property title of my house in Ecuador, college transcript, grades.  In retrospective, I can see such was the fear of running into an odd situation.  But it happened anyway.

One day I was almost sent to secondary inspection for failing to answer a question satisfactorily.  The very important question was, “What is your favorite video game?” I am a musician.  I am a amateur theologian.  Just because I have a computer science degree and a job related to software, it doesn’t mean I know what video games are popular or that I play them or that I enjoy them.  I had no answer, and the officer immediately changed the interview at the port of entry.  Something didn’t add up in his case: a computer guy who doesn’t play video games.

One day one my dearest friends came to my dorm in college knocking and shouting, “La Migra, La Migra,” and I was on the phone with my mother.  We both got a very big scare.  We can laugh now, but the idea of the INS coming to my home was not something that would have surprised me.

Until very recently my social security card bore the inscription in all caps, “VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT ONLY WITH INS AUTHORIZATION.”  You see, the INS and I go way back!  It’s ingrained in my mind.  Every time I write down my social security number I visualize that.

One day, the INS changed my priority date (and the priority date of thousands of fellow permanent residency applicants) by mistake.  It was around my birthday in 2007.  I rushed to file the paperwork required for my application to continue to move forward only to receive on my birthday the news that it had all been a mistake.  A bad April Fools’ joke of sorts.  Take your expenses, eat them, and get back in line.  Thankfully, there was a class-action lawsuit, the court saw the harm caused, and we were allowed to keep that date and move forward.  But it made for a very sad birthday–kind of like you taking away from your child whatever special toy you just gave them for their birthday.

Then there was the time that USCIS (the name has changed over the years) turned me into an undocumented immigrant thanks to the combination of a lawyer’s incompetence and bureaucratic backlog.  I had my papers ready six months ahead of an H1B renewal, but this lawyer refused to file them then.  He kept saying that his office had more important cases, and that he would file by the required date.  And that it didn’t matter that USCIS was taking 3-6 months to process this type of an application because I had a built-in grace period.  For fifteen days, I was in that fun and exciting legal limbo.  I couldn’t work.  I had no paycheck.  I couldn’t travel.  My wife and I visited the USCIS office downtown, and she came in, brightly smiling and carefree.  She couldn’t understand why I was so afraid to go in.  She assumed the best of the U.S. government.  When we crossed the doors into that sterile environment and we encountered the officer who would be answering our questions, my wife understood the reason for my fears.  This wonderful civil employee held in her hands everything she needed to send me to detention and initiate deportation procedures.  The sad thing I saw that day was that nobody could tell us where my case was, what its status was, how long it was going to take, and when I could return back to work.  I am a technology worker!  These should be very simple questions to be answered from a network of computer systems.

And then, there was my wonderful citizenship interview.  I know that many people have a truly wonderful experience.  But mine was a very strange grilling that ranged from scary to offensive, from condescending to reassuring.  It was way weird.

Thanks for getting through that.  I’m getting to the point now.

These are my horror stories.  In the process, the INS/USCIS/ICE did a number of things that are worthy of affirmation: they did their best to ensure I wasn’t a dangerous criminal, that I didn’t have a disease that would have been a public health risk to the U.S. (though it would have made more sense to do this before I came rather than 7 years after I was admitted at the port of entry), that I had all the proper documentation to work.

I was so terrified of them that when I was married, I chose to remain under my own ongoing immigration processes rather than submit my wife to ICE questioning about the authenticity of our marriage. Sure, I’m a prideful person and wanted to do it all on my own and not need to depend on my wife.  Let’s keep it honest.

I have a choice at this point.  My horror stories (and it’s always easy to just focus on the horror stories) can be found to be consistent with the overall narrative of today.  I could take my Saturday and go to a park or go outside of the ICE office downtown and bring a #AbolishICE sign.

Or I could take the time to speak about institutions and our allergy to them.

Change is needed.  That’s for sure.  We are thirty years late to the conversation, but hey, let’s talk.  We all have blood in our hands.  This is one of the most uncomfortable truths to hear in America today.  We all have blood in our hands.  We all have a part on this immigration debacle.  Or you mean to tell me you’ve never bought a tomato in the winter or a suspiciously cheap batch of strawberries?  That you haven’t sat in a toilet cleaned by somebody with my skin color or that you haven’t hired a white man to do a construction job only to find somebody with my skin color show up at your door and do his best to tell you in English what he’s come to do and to find out what he needs to know before getting busy delivering somebody else’s promise?  The conditions have worsened over the years reaching this tipping point.  I am not minimizing anyone’s role in this – President Trump, his administration, Congress, corporations, lobbyists, consumers.

Abolishing ICE is a very interesting reaction to all of this.  There are a lot of things that this institution accomplishes.  And people may not have taken the time to think through them.  This is a question that never gets asked, “What are the implications of what I am proposing?”  We focus a lot on the feelings that we suspect taking this approach will result in, but we don’t think things through all the way.  Have you really considered the chaos that would come?

I am not an ICE fan, obviously.  But I am not going to call for ICE to be abolished.  Reformation is needed, that is for sure.  I will focus only on one simple idea, what if we applied the same standard of justice that we apply this side of the border?  What if we assumed a person was innocent unless proven guilty?  What if we assumed that a person is not a liar to begin with?  I have some theological issues with my own idea that I would be happy to discuss some other time, but if I am picking out one thing to start the conversation, this would be the start.  Not because this is necessarily an implementable idea, but because it would help us see how people end up thinking things like stereotypes of “sleazy Mexicans.”  Our government has been calling immigrants liars forever.  Can you imagine how the treatment of an applicant would change if we were not thought of as deceivers to begin with?

Why am I up at 4:30 AM?  Because the Church matters.  I have a lot of work I need to do today to love and serve the church well.  I would really like to go back to bed, but I can’t.  The Church is my focus today.  Wait, why are you talking about this?  Did you go crazy?

Because it should not be surprising to us that people talk about abolishing ICE when they’ve abolished the Church in their minds for so long.  Whether the reader is Christian or not, Christ is King.  And He gave the Church authority.  The reformers of old knew that the church would need constant reform (always reforming) because we are sinners.  The institution of the Church is given by grace to sinners.  Will sinners abuse authority?  Obviously so.  Will sinners sin?  Obviously so.  Does that abolish the institution established with the authority of Christ?  Absolutely not.  Should this drive sinners to work to earnestly seek her care, reform, and beautification?  Absolutely.

The discussion about abolishing ICE is just one more way our culture is showing our conflicted views on institutions.  We think they can save us.  We think they are the problem.  Neither is right.  Neither salvation nor the solution to our problems will come with/from/without an institution.  But they are also not the entire problem.  Can you imagine the power that would come from a right relationship with Christ and His Church?  Yes, there will always be a separation of Church and State.  We don’t want to marginalize those who haven’t come to know Christ yet.  But when are we going to see the truth that religion and politics don’t separate?  Our religion determines our politics, whether we call ourselves secularists, atheists, Christians, Muslims, … It is always somebody’s morality that is being legislated.

What would happen if you would stop holding every institution guilty until proven innocent?  What if you would do that for the Church?  If you would dethrone yourself from your high place and would assume the Church is innocent of the evils ascribed to her and not properly ascribed to sinners within her?  What if you would drive down I-35 or I-435 this Sunday if you lived in Kansas City and you’d come spend a couple of hours with us and see what it’s all about?  Come see us: kcprovidence.org.  Or just come see an old friend you haven’t seen for a while.  You may get a free lunch out of it.  Just saying.

Victor Chininin Buele

Conciudadanas y conciudadanos lojanos,

¿Qué hemos hecho?

Por más interesante que sea aquella conversación, lo hecho, hecho está.  ¿Por qué digo «qué hemos hecho»? Porque tal es la implicación de la democracia.  No puedo decir lo que esos hicieron, lo que algunitos hicieron.  Loja se ha pronunciado.  Es nuestra realidad.  Loja somos todos.

Razones existen para no querer al Dr. Castillo.  Algunas de ellas han afectado personalmente a personas que quiero con todo mi corazón–a familiares, a hermanos y hermanas en la fe.  He sentido la traición.  Pero cualquier ser humano que observó lo que le ocurrió a nuestra querida Loja durante los años en los que el burgomaestre fue cambiado por decisión popular no puede tapar el sol con un dedo.  No quiero hablar del ingeniero Bailón tampoco de una manera denigrante.  Fue la autoridad que elegimos.  Baches y desorden, Ciudad Victoria y todo.  La democracia es así.  Para eso existen las elecciones: para la alternabilidad, para el cambio, o para la confirmación de la confianza del pueblo.

Razones existen para agradecer a Dios por la obra del Dr. Castillo y sería algo inaudito y una muestra de una gran falta de educación ignorar lo que ha ocurrido en Loja desde aquel principio de esta aventura en el año 1988 y ser mal agradecidos.  Loja ha sido administrada por él en los períodos 1988-1992, 1996-2000, 2000-2005 y ahora desde el 2014.  No se puede separar a Loja del Dr. Castillo.  Las flores y el césped tienden a desparecer cuando él no está en el sillón de la José Antonio Eguiguren.  Jipiro se vuelve igualito a la selva amazónica.

Quiero insertar una variable importantísma y ampliamante ignorada al diálogo de las semanas venideras.

La gran mayoría de las quejas se fundamentan en alegatos de tiranía, mala administración, abuso, violencia e injusticia por parte del Dr. José Bolívar Castillo Vivanco.

Recuerdo aquél día en que volvíamos a Loja con mi abuelita a pie por la calle 10 de Agosto y vimos que el hogar de las ratitas domésticas, también conocido en aquel entonces como el Mercado Central, estaba siendo demolido.  Hay muchos lojanos que hoy pueden votar que nunca conocieron este monumento a la salud pública en pleno centro de la urbe. Es obvio que soluciones ingeniosas como estas han ocurrido y que las multas nos han hecho pintar las casas y pretender que nos vamos a portar bien y no exceder el límite de velocidad siempre y cuando nos digan exactamente en qué cuadra hay que reducir la velocidad, que nos han hecho poner la banderita afuera de la casa en los días cívicos y barrer un poquito.

La variable que quiero introducir es una interrogante–asumiendo que es verdad, que el Dr. Castillo se valió de acciones que eran o parecían ser tiranía, abuso, violencia e injusticia, ¿por qué fueron necesarias tales acciones?

¿Qué parte de la culpabilidad la tenemos nosotros como ciudadanos?

¿Por qué nos oponíamos a quitar los letreros de la vía pública que hacían que Loja se vea tan pero tan fea?

¿Por qué nos oponíamos a los cambios necesarios para que no tengamos que ver y oler las heces fecales saliendo de esos tubos viejísimos a unirse a la trayectoria de los dos jugetones riachuelos?

¿Por qué nos oponíamos a la limpieza de los mercados? ¿Por qué nos oponíamos a que haya orden en la ciudad?

¿Sería porque nunca queríamos ver más allá de nuestras narices?  Y después que toditos se hicieron la rinoplastia hasta más chiquita quedó aquella distancia.

¿Sería que nuestra naturaleza lojana se opone al cambio a toda costa? ¿Que se deleita en el mal del prójimo? ¿Que envidia al que surge y busca mejorar la calidad de vida de los lojanos? ¿Que se opone a todo lo que pueda tener efectos positivos a largo plazo?  ¿Que no quiere escuchar que el cambio es posible?

Claro, que han habido cosas como la última cantinflada de las Carabelas y la pobre abuelita en su casita.  No todo es color de rosa.

Pero no dejemos que este momento histórico se nos vaya sin preguntarnos…

¿Por qué fue necesario que él nos administre de esa manera por casi veinte años?

¿Por qué es que cada vez que el próximo héroe se asoma, sea Reyes o Bailón, todito se daña vuelta?

No me sorprende esto a mi en lo absoluto ya que todos hemos utilizado la revocatoria de la autoridad más fundamental de todas, aquélla de la que provienen todas las otras autoridades, y nos hemos aprovechado de ella para buscar nuestros propios intereses sin pensar mucho en los demás.

Es hora, lojanos, de dejar de estar envidando al que ha intentado hacer el bien.

Es hora, lojanos, de deshacernos del odio.

Es hora, lojanos, de en verdad tener la frente en sudor empapada.

Y con ella, solamente inclinarse ante Dios.

Necesitamos la Regeneración Verdadera.

Aquella del corazón.  Y al que esté con curiosidad, me lo indica por favor.  Les dejo con un aperitivo de lo que se necesita para la Regeneración Verdadera:

³ No hagan nada por egoísmo (rivalidad) o por vanagloria, sino que con actitud humilde cada uno de ustedes considere al otro como más importante que a sí mismo, ⁴ no buscando cada uno sus propios intereses, sino más bien los intereses de los demás.

⁵ Haya, pues, en ustedes esta actitud (esta manera de pensar) que hubo también en Cristo Jesús, ⁶ el cual, aunque existía en forma de Dios, no consideró el ser igual a Dios como algo a qué aferrarse, ⁷ sino que Se despojó a sí mismo tomando forma de siervo, haciéndose semejante a los hombres. ⁸ Y hallándose en forma de hombre, se humilló El mismo, haciéndose obediente hasta la muerte, y muerte de cruz. ⁹ Por lo cual Dios también Lo exaltó hasta lo sumo, y Le confirió el nombre que es sobre todo nombre, ¹⁰ para que al nombre de Jesús se doble toda rodilla de los que están en el cielo, y en la tierra, y debajo de la tierra,¹¹ y toda lengua confiese que Jesucristo es Señor, para gloria de Dios Padre.

Víctor Chininin Buele

My wife asked, “What really is your position on this?” And ended with asking me to think about how I had made a case for us to storm the gates of the foster care system and rescue as many children as possible.

You see, doing theology is dangerous. It always brings you to confrontation with your idols.

Why are we so easily lured by somebody promising us change? Why are we so easily misguided to put away in a drawer things like logic, truth, beauty, faith, the gospel, when there seems to be a faster, more attractive way to get what I want?

Why is it that we are vociferously loud when it comes to somebody else doing the work? Why is it that when it goes beyond social media outrage (a dear friend said medium-rage earlier I suspect as a way to point out how outrage is so common now that it may mean nothing anymore) and letter writing all causes seem to die out a few days after the critical mass point of media attention?

I remember crying listening to then Senator Obama promising me the New Jerusalem in the United States during that eloquent DNC speech. It didn’t come to pass. We left those years more divided than before.

But I know better than to just blame President Obama for it.

Let’s face it.

We are a nation of idolaters who have bought their way out of acknowledging and feeling the right judgment for our idolatry for a long, long time with mansions, booze, money, entertainment, pills, weed, meth, abortion on demand, pornography, fits of rage, anger, self-worship, shopping malls, work, hobbies, mistresses, smart phones, self-indulgent media consumption, racism, classism, all inclusive resorts.

We will do what it takes to silence our conscience when things come close to the idol we worship above God.

Trump didn’t create this. He has used it all. I can’t figure out if it’s all done masterfully as some would like to give him credit for–as a master genius who saw things that we as a nation were too drunk or high to see and used them to seek the world’s biggest playground fight win over Obama. Or if he is just so unintelligent and so driven by primary instinct and emotions that everything becomes a bargaining chip in his plot to “keep on winning.” But as it often ends when I go down this road, I realize that it does not matter.

What matters then?

Hearing the cries of children caged at the southern border and away from their parents reaches deep into our hangover and stupor. Processing that it is all used for political purposes by those in Washington, that aptly called swamp people were promised would be drained, and for corporate gain by those who know just how to package it and dice it so that they can rightly place us in the right category by means of algorithms for special interests to target us… and pay them money to do so… it reaches deep into the slumber and reminds us:

This must be what judgment is.

And we are under it.

Many questions have come as I’ve processed this:

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children we’ve left behind because a younger woman had a bigger rack or a nicer pair of legs without cellulite? Or one that doesn’t nag as much?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children we’ve left behind because of spousal abuse and neglect?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children we have abused when we have stolen authority and exerted it in harmful ways over those we are called to protect?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children who have been taught for decades that the world revolves around them, that truth is relative, and that they need to think of themselves as more significant than anyone else when they finally see it was all a farce–that the man with the orange skin has proven fairly easily that truth is absolute after all, that there are others out there who need us, and that humility is thinking of others as more significant than ourselves?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children who need a calculator to add 11 + 11 who are obviously going to be ill-equipped to compete in a global economy?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children being fed Starbursts and Kool Aid in our inner cities or in places where a fresh vegetable is as rare an occurrence as a father at the head of the dining room table?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children who are being transported across Central America and the Southern desert in the United States by parents, coyotes, or abusers who cannot possibly carry the water and food needed for a child not to suffer thirst and hunger?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children who starve in the countries to our south where the political, economical, and social structures are far from ideal?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children in the Ecuadorian Andes who grew up without a father because he left to pick fruit, clean toilets, lay concrete, wash dishes, roof houses in the United States?

What about the silent cries of the children violently ripped away from what ought to be the safest place for them to grow and thrive, their mother’s womb?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children who are in the foster care system?

What about the silent and not so silent cries of the children whose parents can’t afford health care or make a living wage to support them?

What about the not so silent cries of the children being born addicted to drugs all over America today?

You see? Judgment stings.

It feels monumentally impossible to do anything about it.

That’s why we believe Obama and Trump and the ones before them and the ones who will come after them.

What shall we do?

Believe the gospel and repent. We need Jesus.

We need to know that Christ came into the world to save sinners. That we have obviously sinned in horrendous ways. That there will be no amount of money, activism, or outrage that will unite us back to our Father.

We are the children in the cage. We need the Good Shepherd to unlock the cage and set us free.

Do you want to see? Do you want to change? Open your eyes. You are the child the media is showing you. Open your ears. Those are the cries of your soul longing for your Father.

Victor Chininin Buele

A dear friend asked for my thoughts on the difficult subject of DACA.  I’m not precisely sure what perspective was sought, but this is clearly not something that can be easily typed on Facebook comments.

My thesis is that DACA is an opportunity for the United States to start moving towards repentance.  It is also an opportunity to give and receive grace.  DACA is not to be seen through the lenses of entitlement, and we need to be careful to not proclaim ourselves to be without sin on the subject.

Let me expand on that.

My friend was responding to somebody posting the following on Facebook:

So my house was broken into yesterday while I was at work. Don’t worry, George is ok [sic].

Fortunately, the alarm[sic] told me and Summit police apprehended a man with his 10 year old daughter ransacking the house.

The bad news is, my neighbors took a vote and decided the girl was innocent and only there because her dad brought her.  Now, I have to give her a room, feed her and pay for her to go to school.  Worse yet, since she would be abandoned if her dad goes to jail, he’s been found innocent and I have to let him stay with the girl and feed him too [punctuation sic].

If you think this sounds unfair, then you understand DACA.

A few starting points:

1. I am a naturalized United States citizen and a natural citizen of Ecuador.
2. It took more than fifteen years to become a United States citizen.
3. I have first-hand experience (though not in the first person) with what it is to be an illegal or an undocumented immigrant, semantics aside.  Don’t stop reading if I switch to using the word illegal below.  I have always sought to follow U.S. law.  Please forgive my uneasiness about using the word undocumented.
4. I have first-hand experience of the immigration system of the United States, and the high cost it demands from those who go through it.
5. I am a Christian.  I believe that the Word of God is true and God-breathed.  I believe it is authoritative. I believe that it is our guide and the revelation of Jesus Christ to all humankind.  It is in the Bible that we find the gospel–that we are sinners who cannot save themselves but who through the blood of Jesus Christ given in sacrifice on the cross can have their sins forgiven and can move forward on the path towards daily, practical sanctification, being transformed daily into the image of Christ, one degree of glory to the next.  In simple words, I believe what the Bible says, and I seek to do all things in a Christ-encompassing way.  All things in Christ for all the world.  I believe that if we do what God has revealed to us, God will be with us.
6. I have a bit of a personal crusade against caricatures and straw men arguments.  We have got to learn to listen to each other, understand another person’s opinions, and interact form that point of view.  We don’t get a pass to respond to the worst caricature of a position.

With all of that said, what do I think about DACA?

1.  We are all guilty of sin–we did not love our neighbor as ourselves.

There are many layers on which DACA shows us our sin. Many Americans never thought for a second about the children of immigrants, much less whether they were legal or illegal, as long as our toilets were clean, our strawberries were picked, our meat packaged by someone else.  For decades we allowed a system to exploit human beings who had a desperate need for hope.  Ecuador collapsed in the late 1990’s.  Many Ecuadorians lost everything, the savings of a lifetime.  Certain municipalities in New Jersey took the brunt of this crisis as they became little Ecuadors.  The economy of cities like New York have been built upon these people’s suffering.  You can only pay so much for a slice of pizza at Sbarro’s when you are walking through Times Square.  I am fairly certain that not very many stopped to think of the small town in Southern Ecuador that was left with no men as the man cutting your pizza left it all behind under horrific conditions to cross the Río Grande in hope of providing for his kids.  These kids were left behind, grew up with a grandmother at best, no parents, and were easy preys to all kinds of difficulty.  One day, the parents saved enough (or took on serious debt) to pay a coyote to get them across the border.  In hope.  We have to acknowledge that.  We did not love our neighbor as ourselves. We must realize that a big reason sanctuary cities are sanctuary cities is not because they are highly evolved, loving and caring, and all about social justice.  If people needed to pay for the real price of things in those economies, the entire economic dynamics would need to change.  In order to get a $1 burger, you can only pay somebody so much.  If everyone had the same rights and access to fair wages, i.e., if they had legal documents, the cost of said burger would be much higher.  Christ’s humility is radically different than ours.  In Philippians 2 we are called to imitate said humility that counts others as more significant than ourselves.  That’s so radical because we are always after finding the best deal for us.  Not for others.  We are guilty.

2. They broke the law.

Horrific economic conditions need to clearly be understood.  When you learn that somebody cleans toilets in the United States or washes dishes in the United States for more than you make a day in Ecuador, temptation becomes very real.  And then you hear that Pepito’s cousin and Maria’s sister made it across the border, and that they have a house in Queens.  The story is properly exaggerated to make it sound like they are the next Rockefellers.  You start thinking you can make it, too.  Coyotes come and promise you for a few thousand dollars to get you across the desert.  Let’s not kid ourselves.  The whole enterprise is highly illegal and dangerous, abusive and criminal.  It is sinful.  God will not look kindly upon coyotes at the judgment.  Those who steal from the needy and do violence are repulsive to God.  Yet, we also have to acknowledge that it is sufficiently clear for anyone entering into a contract or a transaction to come to the U.S. that the enterprise is illegal.  Everybody knows that it is against the law, and they know the risks of getting caught.  For the adults, it should be very straightforward.  They paid a coyote to help them break the law.  Yes, it was a horrific decision to be made and a painful one exasperated by a number of unthinkable circumstances.  But they were not coerced to do it. For their kids, the conversation turns a little sour.  We can argue degrees of innocence here until Kingdom comes, but I would simply want to say that there is a significant difference between sending an eight year old via the Mexican desert with a coyote and buying the kid a ticket on DL 680 from Quito to Atlanta.  The law was broken. And it is awful that these children had to endure many times the horrors of inhumane transportation conditions and living quarters, with limited or no water and/or food, prolonged time in the desert and exposure to the elements.

3. Most politicians are sinful opportunists.

We are where we are because politicians refused to enact national immigration law that made sense to the circumstances we had.  We were the rich Uncle Sam up north while our neighbors to the south literally starved to death.  Instead of owning their responsibility, they went down a different path–Leave it to the school districts to figure out how to hire ESL teachers, how to get ahold of parents who spoke no English, how to educate children with very little parental communication with the teachers.  Leave it to the local health departments to provide immunizations.  Leave it to the emergency rooms to deal with catastrophic health issues and non-so-catastrophic surprises.  Leave it to the states and charities to pay for births and WIC and food stamps.  Politicians sat on this and did nothing.  They have also sinned.

4.  We are called to love the widow, the immigrant, and the orphan.

Christianity necessarily results in love and care for the widow, the immigrant, and the orphan.  Many dreamers are practical or true orphans.  Many were raised without parents.  Many had parents who died crossing the border or in the dangerous work they had.  Many women were left as widows, affairs were had, marriage vows broken.  We cannot close doors upon the needy.

5.  DACA is a start, an insufficient start, but a start nonetheless.

I testify to you that being a legal immigrant has been a very difficult thing.  It has cost a lot of money, heartache, sorrow, embarrassment, time, and anxiety.  There is not a simple way to run through the rails of this system.  I have a college education, and my skills are highly valued in the current U.S. economy.  Even so, I had a lawyer malpractice scenario intersect with significant government delays, and I ended up becoming an illegal immigrant for two weeks.  Once my petition was resolved, it was retroactive, so this is not a part of my records today.  But trust me, the feeling I had when I was told to step away from my cubicle and leave, the feeling I had driving home knowing there would be no paycheck, the feeling I had coming home to my wife that day…

Life in the shadows is not a life.

Jesus came that his children would have life and live it to the fullest. He is the Good Shepherd.

DACA is an executive order.  Yes, you are certainly free to raise concerns about this being addressed as a presidential executive order rather than as legislation.  But in that debate we continue to ignore the fact that our democratically elected representatives and senators did nothing.

Repentance is necessary.

We need to repent of our lack of love for neighbor.

Undocumented workers need to repent of violating the law.

Dreamers need to repent, in certain cases, of entitlement.  Repentance is also needed from breaking the law.

Politicians need to repent of their sinful neglect of their responsibility.

And then.

Grace.

Grace must abound.

We must find a way to restore the repentant, to lift up the downcast, and to make amends.

But now, that everybody is all of a sudden in love with the dreamers, be careful to not forget grace and start acting all entitled. A lot of people are very compassionate now.  They want dreamers to be free. And that’s a noble thing.  But, repentance is required because we must all answer the question, where were we when these kids needed us the most?  Where were we when politicians refused to act upon immigration law reform that made sense and that would have helped everyone?

But let’s approach this with a sober mind.  Walking in repentance is difficult.

The economic balance of our cities is not going to be the same.

Prices will change.

We all need to own up our responsibilities and move forward in repentance.  The path for American citizenship is a very secondary matter compared to the path to everlasting joy in Christ.  Actions have consequences.  And without repentance there will be no joy.  Christ is light.  Whatever he touches will never be the same.

I dream of the moment where this America stops avoiding responsibility and repents and turns to love God, do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (cf. Micah 6:8).

I want the dreamers to have joy.  Not just a citizenship in a place that will not last for eternity.  I want them to be citizens of the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

We must press on to end this non-sensical political stalemate.  Lives matter more than political interests.  It was never said, “Blessed are those who seek their own self-interest and turn a blind eye on the needy, for they shall see God.”

After Joseph detained Simeon as collateral, he sent the other brothers to bring Benjamin back before establishing further trade between Jacob’s family and the Egyptians.  He sent them with the grain they had purchased, but he also secretly returned their payment as well.  In this way Joseph was able to bless his brothers, however, because the brothers could not fathom that the gesture was intentional blessing, they were terrified as they imagined that they would be accused of having cheated and stolen from the Egyptians.  Because of their fear, likely caused by the guilt they carried from their sin against Joseph, they cried out, “What has God done to us?”  Did you catch that?  Verse 25 says the returning of their money was something that was done for them, but they saw it as something done to them.

Do you sometimes think circumstances in your life are like a curse or a punishment because you fear one possible outcome?  Well, in the case of these brothers, and in your case, I’m glad the God of Life is the one who writes the end of our stories, and His children never have to fear the end of the story.

As it turned out, the brothers returned to Joseph with their youngest brother after they had fretted a good bit and eaten through the grain they purchased on the first trip.  They took twice the payment as before and were ready to grovel for mercy as they explained the “mistaken” returned payment to the steward of Joseph’s house.  He told them, “Peace to you, do not be afraid.  Your God and the God of our father has put treasure in your sacks for you.  I received your money.”  The brothers met Joseph again, ate as his guests, and were prepared for their return trip, but this time Joseph’s slight-of-hand was a test, not just a blessing.

Joseph had his steward frame the youngest brother, Benjamin as a thief, and when Joseph made the accusation, the brothers protested that none of them would steal from him, but that if any were found to be guilty of the crime, they would surrender to punishment of death.  Well, once the “stolen” property was discovered in Benjamin’s possession, the brothers all lost it.  They pleaded with Joseph for mercy for the sake of their aged and bereaved father.  Maybe it was this very compassion on Jacob, which was not a concern for these same brothers when they staged Joseph’s death all those years before, that fully broke Joseph.

Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, forgave them, absolved them from shame, exalted God’s sovereignty, begged them to receive the blessing of his provision during the remaining years of famine, and showered them with affection.  Honestly, if this all happened within a matter of minutes like the text seems to suggest, I feel bad for those overwhelmed brothers!  They had willfully committed some heinous sin, it’s true.  But they had lived in the darkness of shame and fear, slaves to Satan’s accusations for more than a decade.  Then, all of a sudden, the lights of love and forgiveness were switched on, and did they ever blaze with God’s glory!  That must have been a completely overwhelming moment for them.

In the end, Jacob was told the incredible story of Joseph in Egypt, and he even made the journey to see his long lost son for himself.  The whole family was resettled closer to the food stores in Egypt and worked as shepherds over the flocks of Pharaoh.  It became clear to those who once scoffed at the dreams once told by the young Joseph that such dreams  were actually a promise of blessing, not a threat of domination.  And that, my friends, is the goodness of this God of Life.  His authority is over all, and His generosity is beyond anything you can imagine.

The text discussed above can be found in Genesis 42:26-47:12.  I apologize for not including it in its entirety here, but I encourage you to read it directly from God’s Word.

How do you know when you can trust someone?  Is it when they deliver on their promise?  Well, that’s not really trust, is it?  That would be a transaction.  Trust is knowing that the one who is promising something has the desire and the power to complete the promised action.  Of course, having seen the person fulfill other promises in the past certainly doesn’t hurt either.

What trust does not mean is that we will get some sort of plan of action report so we can understand how the promise will be fulfilled.  That’s the hardest part when I have to trust.  For some reason, I, like Abram, forget all too often how much God has done without my help.  I feel like I constantly need to be sent out to count the stars that God made and put in their places so I remember that His promises in my non-cosmically-foundational life will be fulfilled.  He has done so much to keep me alive and to bless me beyond anything I could ever deserve, that I can trust, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that whatever fear of lacking or loss that Satan wants me to agonize over, God can and will either spare me from it or carry me through it.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’  But Abram said, ‘O, Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’  And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.’  And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’  And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’  Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’  And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”  – Genesis 15:1-6

Something that I love about God is that He will often do something for me that He had kept me from doing before.  For example, maybe you really want a certain job.  You do everything in your power to get that job, but they hire someone else.  Then one day – maybe weeks later, maybe years later – you get a call, and it’s about the job.  They want you, no competition necessary.  Why would God keep you from the job at first, just to give it to you later?  Maybe it was the timing, or maybe it was your intent that didn’t line up with His design.  That second possibility is what we will look at in the text today.

Just a chapter before Abram comes into the picture, we have the history of Babel (see my previous post entitled The God of Life is Patient).  God halted the plans of the masterminds behind the tower to heaven for a couple of reasons, one of which was their desire to make a name for themselves.  Specifically, they wanted to defy God’s command to spread out and fill the earth.  And now, with Abram?  Check out the text below.  God tells Abram in no uncertain terms that He (God) wants to make Abram’s name great.  Don’t miss why God wants to do this.  This isn’t a trick.  God wants to use the greatness of Abram’s name – the nation that his family will be made into by God’s power – in order that it will be a blessing to all of the families on earth.  That includes you, me, your best friend, and your worst enemy.  God’s purpose in setting Abram apart is not elitism or favoritism; it is a matter of blessing for everyone on Earth.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'” – Genesis 12:1-3

God had only ever given good gifts – compassion, empowerment, mercy, truth, unity, and life, among others – to the men and women on earth, but there came a time of such great revolt against holiness that wickedness flooded the earth.  Yes, before the waters of judgment overcame them, the the people had already drowned themselves in a flood of godlessness.  Their desire was for the things of death, and the God of Life was grieved by this.

How do you react in grief?  There are a number of common emotions people generally have while grieving, but God is not like us.  He doesn’t react with emotions.  He responds with righteousness.  You see, while we like to think we can declare what is fair, God designed Justice.  When wickedness is the desire of the people, the Lord’s grief is deeper than any heartbreak we can know, and His actions are more pure than anything we are capable of.  His destruction is not a fit.  That is how sinful man reacts.  His judgment is just, and the judgment that destroyed the wicked during Noah’s time is a merciful caution for us today.

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them’  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”  – Genesis 6:5-8