Jesus Was a Geographer

So after a long hiatus of writing and blogging, I thought I'd bring back the habit. Hope this proves to be a thought provoking and rewarding read.

Geography is a difficult subject to describe, and even more difficult to understand once within the discipline. The complexities of place, our relationship to our environment, and each other are trying upon an individual to grasp in entirety. Additionally, there are hard truths geographers must deal with daily, truths that often hide nefariously from the general populous of the educated white, middle class of which I am a member. These truths reveal a deep brokenness of urban systems, rural environment interactions, and cultural conflicts festering in the shadows of food trailers, traffic lights, and apartment blocks.


"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds". - Aldo Leopold. I venture to say the same of geographically revealed worldviews. Before being trained in geography, I lived unaware of the damaging effects humankind has on establishing the above wounds. Now aware of such things, I walk in a daily calling to live in such a way that not only avoids any further harm, but dresses the wounds. It really is a hard thing though, especially since I don't even fully understand the ways and things that cause harm, much less how to address them with love and goodness.


The person of Jesus Christ understood a perspective of geographical and ecological wounds and walked in a way of conscientious love towards the brokenness. In doing such, he remains the example with which I will test myself against in striving to live so as to love well and fully. In the next few weeks, I hope to explore these issues more through writing and reflecting. 

-Chris

The Need for Incarnational Love

I am convinced more and more each day that the model Jesus set through the incarnation can no longer be ignored by we who claim to follow Him. If we truly believe Christ's words, "where I am, there shall my servant also be". The first question we need to ask about Jesus is: where?

Where did he come from? Where did he go? Where is he now? We need to establish all these possible places so that we can accurately follow him in them. We know from scripture that Jesus left Heaven to come down to earth. Hebrews 2 says "he partook of the same [flesh and blood]", that "he had to be made like His brethren in all things". And from 2 Corinthians 8:9, "for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that through His poverty you might become rich."

So here's Jesus, the son of God, leaving the comfort and wealth of Heaven and entering the nasty poverty of earth. But he doesn't stop there. He actually becomes poor; he partakes of the same flesh and blood as us, the same sufferings. This is the gospel message. God didn't love us from afar and save us from Heaven. He came to us, lived as one of us in order to love us where we are.

Paul put it this way to the church in Thessalonica: "We were well pleased to impart to you not only the good news of God, but also our very lives because you had become very dear to us," and to the church in Corinth he says "I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some". Paul saw that the life of Jesus was God sharing his very life with us. He saw that Jesus threw his lot in with ours, that he became like us in order to save us, and so Paul recognized the need to do the same in his ministry.

The call to follow Jesus cannot be taken lightly. Jesus did not halfway love us from afar; he didn't save us from afar; and he didn't pop in with ideas to fix things immediately. No, he came to us and made his dwelling with man. He linked our futures together.

Where does that leave us? If we believe in Jesus as Messiah, and we desire to follow him, then we have got to follow his example. The call to follow him and serve and love others is a call to imitate his love. We need to throw our lots in with those we minister to, and like Paul we need to share our very lives with them. We need to live with them like Jesus lived with us on earth. We need to become like them like Jesus partook of the same flesh and blood we have. We need to be like Paul, who became all things to all men. For the poor we need to become poor, living with them, binding our futures together. How can we "follow" Jesus and do anything less?

What does this look like in our lives? Are we really following the Jesus who gave up his wealth, comfort, and power, who “became for a little while lower than the angels”? Or are we living our own lives, satisfied to love others when it is convenient; to love others from afar. If God is love, then love looks to me like sacrificing wealth, comfort and living as one of those we are trying to love, sharing the same hardships like Jesus shared with us.

Chris Mills

"Blessed are the poor in spirit"

A poem I wrote the other day:

Poor

A four letter word

A four letter word unable to describe, unwilling to collide

My world,

My world with reality.

The paper and the pen cannot produce a fine enough line

Cannot create in my mind…the substance…of what is my world

Poor.

I am not, I will not be…but oh you see I am

Defined by a phrase too thin to graze, too slight to phase

Even the flies... who use my eyes for water

What is this word

So unsubstantial, but what else is new.

For like it, I slip through:

the pavement in your swimming pools,

Slide through

the cracks in your Sunday schools,

I am your brother, your neighbor, with no sign of favor

Poor.

Four letters of no relation to those other four

Four letters that deprive me of them.

Poor

Peace be upon you,
C.R.Mills

Test

This is a test only of the emergency alert system.

So I went to Academy the other day with my bro Dean because he wanted some shoes. Then I saw this boomerang and we thought that it'd be a great time waster and loads of fun. It was, but it didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped, as you can see from the video. I guess that's what four bucks will get you though haha.


In other news, some good friends of mine have started a blog/video blog on pop culture stuffs. They're a couple of Austin locals interested in comics, cereal, beer, movies, music, etc... No matter what they're reviewing/blogging about, you're in for a good time with them. So head on over to www.crunchpopblog.blogspot.com for my recommended blog this week and spread the news to you're pals.

Peace be upon you,

C.R.Mills

4CP Friday! I was introduced to this wonderful macro photography of old 4CP style comics by a good friend. Head on over to the four color process blog here. Also, each Friday HiLobrowselects a few good samples. Pretty fun stuff if you're into photography and/or comics.

Check out HiLobrow; middlebrow simply is not the solution.

Peace be upon you,
C.R.Mills

In about three weeks I'll be traveling to New York to be a part of Intervarsity's NYCUP (New York City Urban Project) where I will intern with the Love Kitchen.

I can't believe it. Andrea's been in Kenya on the Kenya Global project for several days now. I'm trying to keep myself busy, so I revamped my blog.

Peace be upon you,
C.R.Mills