Being Upbeat in a Downbeat World
Program 4519
First air date February 10 , 2002
[Transcribed from tape and edited for clarity.]
A passage of scripture that really is crucial for me comes out of the 8th chapter of Romans, the 14th verse: "As many as are lead by the spirit of God, they are the children of God."
There’s more to being a Christian than just believing the right stuff, than just having the right doctrine, having your head in the right place. To be Christian, you must open yourself up and invite the spirit of God, to invite Jesus, to invite the Holy Spirit to invade you, to possess you, to take possession of you. And here’s the phrase: to lead you. Are you willing to surrender to the Spirit and allow the Spirit to flow into you, take control of you and lead you? Because if that happens, no matter what goes on around you, you’ll know that all things will work together for good in the economy of God.
Let me tell you about some people I know who are led by the Spirit. A friend of mine, Al Whitaker, came down for breakfast one morning. He was CEO of one of the Fortune 500 companies. His wife looked across the table and said, "Al, is this what you want to do the rest of your life? I mean you’re primarily helping rich people to get richer. It’s a good thing, I guess, but is this what you want to do?"
That night at supper he looked across the table at her and said, "That question you asked me this morning was so troubling, you should know that when I left the office today I handed in my resignation." He started an organization called Opportunity International, an organization that prepares people to go to Third World countries, places like the slums of Manila or the barrios of Bogota; the slums of Haiti or the forgotten places of the world where so many people suffer and die. He goes to those places and starts small businesses, cottage industries.
For years at Eastern College, students that graduated from a special program we had there were trained to go and work with Al Whitaker starting small businesses and cottage industries among the poor. In ten years—are you ready for this?—Al Whitaker and those working with him generated 2.5 million jobs among the poor and the oppressed of the world. Now, if you figure there are six people to family in a third world country, when you create 2.5 million jobs you have to take 2.5 million and multiply it by six. And then you have some idea as to how many millions of people have been delivered from poverty. Not for a day, not for a week, not for a year, but for the rest of their lives. He was a man who said, "I’m going to be open to the spirit of God. I’m going to allow Jesus to invade me, to possess me, to take possession of my being. And he changed and the world has been changed because of him.
Another friend of mine, Millard Fuller, called me many years ago and said, "I want you to be on a board."
I asked, "For what?"
He said, "We’re going to build houses for poor people."
I said, "That’s good."
He said, "Not only are we going to build houses for poor people, but they are going to be able to buy these houses with no down payment."
I said, "That’s terrific! That’s what usually keeps poor people from buying houses."
He said, "Beyond that, they are going to have long term mortgages and no interest on the mortgages."
I said, "That’s wild! I’m buying a house and most of what I pay in any given payment is for interest."
And he said, "That’s right. But the Hebrew Bible says that you should never charge interest to poor people so we’re not going to do that. One thing more, when these poor people buy these houses they are only going to have to pay for the cost of building materials."
I said, "Millard, that’s wonderful except for one thing, who’s going to pay for the labor, who’s going to pay for the workers?"
He said, "No problem! I’m going to get church people to volunteer."
I said, "Right!"
Twenty-five years later, Habitat for Humanity has completed 100,000 houses. Did you hear that? 100,000 families delivered from sub-standard living, with some degree of dignity, because this man was led by the spirit of God, led by Jesus to do something incredibly important with his life.
You know, when the hurricane blew through Homestead, Florida, some years ago, it blew down every home in Homestead except for the 18 houses that were built by Habitat for Humanity. When the press interviewed Millard, they asked, "How do you account for this? How come the houses built by Habitat stood when all the others were blown down?"
He smiled and said, "Well you have to understand that when Habitat builds a house, we build a house on the rock."
I watched as these reporters wrote it down. They didn’t get it. But, of course, it’s deeper than that. The real reasons the houses didn’t blow down is because the people who built them, these church volunteers, didn’t know what they were doing. You see, a builder knows you put a piece of wood in place, you put a vise in place, you put five nails here and five nails there. That ought to hold the beam. But the Habitat builders don’t know what they are doing, so they put twenty nails here and twenty nails there. If the foundation requires this much cement, they put in that much cement. Every house they build is over built. And so when the storms came, other houses might have blown down but their houses stood. It’s an incredible story of the man who had a vision, a vision that was given to him by God. He will tell you that. He’ll tell you how that at a particular point in his life, he opened himself up and asked the Holy Spirit to invade him, possess him, take possession of him and lead him. For as it says in Romans 8:14, "As many as are lead by the spirit of God, they are the children of God."
Now you are probably saying, "I’m not a Millard Fuller. I’m not an Al Whitaker. I can’t do fantastic stuff like that." Well, let me tell you one last story. It’s about a friend of mine who had a deacon in his church. He tried to get the deacon to really open up and let the spirit of God lead him. Finally the deacon concluded that there was one thing he could do. He could take the youth group to the old folk’s home. Once a month the youth group of this church went to the old folk’s home and put on a little church service for the people who were there. Once he went with the youth group and he stood in the back of the room. The young people were performing and this old man in a wheel chair rolled over, rolled his chair over to where this deacon was standing, took hold of his hand and held it all during the service. That was repeated the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month and the next month. Then they went one Sunday afternoon and the man wasn’t there. The deacon asked the nurse in charge, "What happened to that man?" "Oh," she said, "He’s near death. He’s just down the hall, the third room. Maybe you should go in and visit him. He’s unconscious, though."
The deacon walked down and went into the room. There were tubes. You know how people are when they are just about gone and lying there was quite an ugly scene. The man went over and took hold of the hand of the gentleman in the bed. He said a prayer. Just instinctively led by the Spirit, he said a prayer. And when he said "Amen," the old fellow squeezed his hand. He was so moved by that squeeze of the hand that he began to weep. He shook a little. He tried to get out of the room and as he was leaving the room, he bumped into this woman who is coming into the room. She says, "He’s been waiting for you. He said he did not want to die until Jesus came and held his hand and I tried to tell him that after death he would have a chance to meet Jesus and talk to Jesus and hold Jesus’ hand. But he said, ‘No. Once a month Jesus comes and holds my hand and I don’t want to leave until I have a chance to hold the hand of Jesus once more.’"
I tell you that story because to be led by the Spirit may bring you into doing things as awesome as Al Whitaker and Millard Fuller. Maybe so. But even if you can’t do that, if you yield to the Spirit there’s something very important that God wants to do in you and through you. It might be just as simple as this, to go some place and to hold somebody’s hand, to be Jesus for somebody. That’s what Christ wants of us. Not just to have us believe in him, he wants us to be people who surrender to him, who yield to him, and are transformed by him. He wants to take hold of us and lead us.
Every year in America I recruit some hundred young people and say to them, "Look, will you give Jesus a chance? Will you let him take possession of you? Will you let the Holy Spirit invade you? Will you let the Holy Spirit be a presence in you?" And they come and work with us. They are working in four cities now in a program called Mission Year. What they do is rather undramatic. They don’t run any great programs. They simply go door to door in these poor neighborhoods, knock on the doors, and when people answer they say, "We are here to do one thing. We want to pray God’s blessing on you and on the people that live in the house with you. Will you let us do that?" Even the agnostics say, "Well, if it will make you feel any better, go ahead." And on the doorsteps of houses throughout Oakland, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, they pray for people. They pray God’s blessing on people. I meet with these young people from time to time and the stories they tell are remarkable. They talk about knocking on doors and elderly people coming and saying, "Oh, I’m so depressed. I was hoping somewhere, someplace, somebody would pray for me and you’ve come!" They have touched so many lives. Not doing anything fantastic, nothing that’s newsworthy, that’s going to make the front page of the newspapers. Just one hundred young people going from door to door, praying God’s blessing on those who answer. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the children of God.
So I have a question to ask: Do you want to be upbeat in this downbeat world? Do you want to have a sense of joy and excitement and enthusiasm? Then do this. Invite the spirit of God to invade you, possess you, control you, and, listen, lead you. For there is joy in following the leading of Jesus. St. Francis knew that. Millard Fuller knew that. Al Whitaker knew that. I know that. And if you give the spirit of God the chance to lead you, you’ll know it to. God bless you!
Conversation with Tony Campolo
Lydia Talbot: Tony, your message on the Good News, despite so much bad news everywhere in the world, is something that most people are longing to hear. But it’s not a pep talk, it’s not a feel good promise.
Tony Campolo: You know, there’s a passage in Scripture that’s very crucial in all of this, in these difficult times, in these downbeat times. It’s Romans 8:28 which reads: "All things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to his purpose." A lot of people think that means that if I love God, God is going to control everything so that everything is going to be good for me. And then they get angry when things aren’t good. In reality, what that passage really is saying to us is no matter what goes on, whether it’s September 11th and buildings being blown apart by airplanes, no matter what happens, God is there and God’s people are there. And they, being led by his Spirit, will turn things around and make them better.
Talbot: So to be a part of God’s work in the world is not some romanticized endeavor but it’s got a hard edge on it.
Campolo: When I was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, my neo-Marxist students would always say, "Christianity is pie in the sky when you die, by and by." In reality, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer we say, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth..." We are builders of God’s kingdom on Earth.
Talbot: So the joy that comes from being part of God’s work in the world is an inspired kind of experience. I mean it’s not a preoccupation with self or family or those close to us, but putting our bodies on the line for others who are suffering.
Campolo: In Mark 10, Jesus says to a young man who wants eternal life, who wants the joy, the love, all the ecstasies of the spirit that people long for, "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor." Now he does that not just to help poor people, but he knows what will happen to the young man as the young man responds to the needs of the poor. He knows that all the ecstasy, all the joy, all the love that this young man wants in his heart will only happen when he forgets himself and responds to the needs of others as he follows the lead of God’s spirit.
Talbot: What is the word to those for whom the dream has died or those who have lost the vision?
Campolo: What Jesus would say. Go into the closet, shut the door and in darkness—don’t even go out into nature, nature is so beautiful it distracts you—and just focus on Jesus and surrender and say, "I’m here, take me, lead me, use me." That’s my answer.
Talbot: Now that has happened to Tony Campolo. The spirit has led you into some amazing places, to Cuba and a personal interview with Fidel Castro, for example. Talk about that.
Campolo: Just a little while ago, just a week ago at this time actually, I was in Havana. I had a two-and-a-half hour question and answer with Fidel. It was incredible. He was telling me how the revolution needed religion. He didn’t say God. He went on to talk about the fact that Cuba has changed. It was an atheistic state. Two years ago he had the constitution changed and it is now a secular state with separation of church and state, no longer anti-religious. A sister has become a Christian. That influenced him greatly. A Brazilian priest with the last name of Beto. I’ve got to find out who this guy is! Fr. Beto—and he talked about him very specifically—came to visit him and spoke to him about the fact that Jesus was on the side of the poor and oppressed. And Fidel Castro, who had never quite seen the church that way, under the influence of this priest, began to look at the church differently. So I have great hopes for Cuba. My interview with him was very, very promising and hopeful.