kingdom musings?

So I’m sitting here at my desk, and I’ve just read Kirk’s latest blog post, about his recent kingdom connections, and the things God is putting before him, and thoughts are beginning rather suddenly to churn in my head. Around and around, swirling through things that have been inescapable this week, and that are continually developing.

I’m sitting at my desk, nibbling on dried mango, on the third floor of a small building in one of Calgary’s most racially diverse neighborhoods. On the lower floors are Mennonite Central Committee, and a large thrift shop. On one side of our building is a strip club, always occupied with clientele, judging from the parking lot that our staff room window overlooks. On the other a small furniture store.

I’m working for a small insurance company run by Mennonites. Kingdom work in a field that isn’t typically known for such a cause. Our company donates about $100,000 a year to kingdom causes – mostly through organizations like Mennonite Central Committee, focusing on issues of justice, but also on a lower level through needs identified by the churches and policy holders we work with.

I filled out an alumni survey for U of C the other day. I’ve only officially been alumni for six months, and they’re already surveying me! It asked if I’m working in the field I graduated from. I’m not.

I’m working with the results of the field I graduated from. I spent four years studying post-reformation era Europe, focusing primarily on groups like the Anabaptists and Moravians. Groups with a tradition of moving continents to escape persecution, and taking with them Biblical values of justice, peace, and love.

Spreading the kingdom of God in salt and light tiny ways.

As far as I know, my ancestors didn’t come from Europe fleeing religious persecution. They came from Europe like so many others, hoping to create a better life in Canada or in the United States. They came from similar parts of Europe to the Mennonites – Russia, Germany, Ukraine.

But now, I work for this group of people. And they fascinate me. Worrying about prisoners that society has forgotten, and immigrants that Canada, despite her professed “mosaic multi-culturalism” would prefer not to deal with.

They sell fair trade handicrafts from the developing world, supporting children and families, and women and schools. You can buy your family members a goat for Christmas from these people.

They are farmers, and lawyers, and financial planners, and together they are working to bring the kingdom. Some dress very traditionally, with the women in skirts and headcoverings, and some are more modern than I.

I would imagine that it’s somewhat idealistic, but I am caught by the fact that answering phones, sorting mail, emptying a dishwasher, calling office equipment repair people, and making labels are somehow part of kingdom work. That I sit here and pick up phone calls, and because I answer phones, our company, somewhere down the line makes a profit, and the profit is directed towards kingdom causes.

And I wonder at the encounters I have here… the conversations, the friends I’m making, and I’m grateful for the chance to watch the kingdom unfold in this tiny little corner of Calgary.

I am captivated by the idea of justice… and yet, I don’t quite understand…

Quote from Nouwen

Found this quote from Henri Nouwen on the web this morning, and thought I'd pass it on:

“Our life is full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives.”
— Henri Nouwen