Here Be Dragons

Attribution:  Photographic Reproduction of a Detail of Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus, Wikimedia

I loved adventure stories when I was a kid.  King Arthur and Merlin, Johnny Swift, Robin Hood, Star Wars, White Fang, Red Dog, and John Wayne.  The heroes of these stories were my idols.  Their tales were how I imagined my own story.  There were few problems in the world that couldn't be solved by strength, endurance, a keen mind, a good sword, a fast draw, or just a solid right hook.  I spent summer days innumerable in the halls of my imagination slaying dragons and foiling dastardly villains.  Of course at the end of it all were accolades and the fair maiden's hand, and all was well.  

Among one of my absolute favorite heroes, was Saint George.  I remember encountering Saint George in the Fairbury Public Library.  On the wall was a print depicting Saint George’s valiant fight with the Dragon.  The scene took place far above the ground as the Dragon soared over the English countryside with George, then known as the Red Cross Knight, and his faithful steed locked in its massive claws.  The Dragon was a terrifying sight, all sinew and scales with enormous bat wings stretched against the sky and its rows of dagger teeth barely concealing the fire in its belly.  George, however, remained steadfast.  Horse and rider in the beasts clutches soaring higher and higher from the surefooted ground, he drove his lance at the creature’s brassy scales.  

Is it any wonder that Saint George and the Dragon as told by Margaret Hodges and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman was my most oft borrowed book as a little reader?    

I didn’t realize it of course, but that book introduced me to archetypes I would pursue most of my life.  In my imagined journeys, I was the Red Cross Knight, noble and true.  Princess Una, who crossed dragon ravaged lands to lead a brave champion to her people, became my first love.  And ever in the shadows of my imagination lurked the Dragon, looming and malevolent in the smoke-shrouded dark.  The story was so ingrained in my childhood that I decided to track down The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser a few years ago.  Saint George and the Dragon was adapted from this classic tale, and reading the original work as an adult was like coming home.

All the familiar characters were there.  Still pure and noble, they fought back against the dark places of the world with devotion, truth, and righteousness.  But as I read one of my favorite childhood tales from the cynical outlook that age can offer, I had to wonder...  life isn’t quite as simple as those youthful adventurous tales of derring-do, is it?  

Very few adult problems are solved by swordplay.  A strong back and a true spirit may still be admirable traits, but it does little to pay those student loan bills.  Questing is rarely a wise career choice, nor an effective courting practice.  In today’s world, a horsed figure with gleaming armor and a sharp lance is likely to draw comparisons to foolish Don Quixote rather than admirable King Arthur.  

And then the Dragons...  Is our world devoid of monsters?  Are there no evils which prey upon the weak and devour the land?  

Maps of the Ancient World would have dragons and sea serpents drawn in along the edges along with the bold warning, “Here Be Dragons”.  For the ancients, the monsters lived in the margins.  There were dangers if you ventured from home into the wilds and waste.  You could face Dragons at the edges of the map.  

Similarly, we believe we are safe.  As long as we can stay securely within the status quo, as long as we can remain numb from the too common tragedies around us, the modern world seems like a more or less safe place, but there are Dragons lurking below the surface and along the margins.  

Paul says in Ephesians, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  According to Paul, there are very real dangers at work in the world.  The modern monsters may not have slavering fangs and massive claws, but they will devour the innocents just as in stories of old.  Today’s monsters are harder to illustrate in children’s storybooks:  slavery, violence against women, extreme inequality in wealth distribution, infant mortality, inadequate access to clean water, child hunger, the use of child soldiers, natural disasters, and environmental degradation.  Yet, regardless of what they are called each of these “monsters” and many, many others devour resources and destroy human lives.  

If we pay attention to what’s going on at the margins of society, and in the darkest corners of our own lives, we will see Dragons there, but its also possible that we will find shining knights.  Later in Ephesians, Paul encourages the Church to “put on the whole armor of God.., and after having done everything, to stand”.  In Christ, we have within us the strength to stand against the “powers of this dark world”, but not with Excalibur or as a gun-toting, wise-cracking John McClane.  No, the Dragons that we face in this world are spiritual evils and they require that, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”  

These weapons are described metaphorically by Paul as such things as truth, righteousness, salvation, willingness, and the Word of God.  These are the “weapons” modern Knights use to fight the Dragons of the world.  Some of their stories may have even inspired you.  Mother Theresa poured out her life in service to India’s neglected.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer literally lost his life in fighting the evils of the Third Reich.  And Martin Luther King, Jr was killed for having done all to stand against the evils of racism and discrimination.  

But there are hundreds of thousands of stories out there of warriors engaged in this battle.  Blood: Water Mission is one example.  Award-winning band, Jars of Clay, were moved to use their celebrity to actively work against the HIV and water crises in Africa through this grassroots organization.  Or Kiva, an organization focussed on microfinance to empower the world’s impoverished.  In Half the Sky, Nicolas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn said that “microfinance has done more to bolster the status of women, and to protect them from abuse, than any laws could accomplish.”  Through all manner of creative activism, Shane Claiborne tries to show people the possibilities of living into a new Kingdom, one that denies war and imperialism and embraces peace, love, community, and the environment.  

But you don’t have to fight on a global stage to take to battle the Dragons of our world.   Anthony Cymerys fights Dragons every week at 82 years young, when he offers the poor of his neighborhood a haircut for the price of a hug.  Sen.  Amanda McGill used her position in the Nebraska Legislature to champion a bill which strengthened Nebraska’s anti-trafficking laws.  Mike Smith of Lincoln, NE uses skateboarding to draw together a community that aids the needy and protects the marginalized.  My friend, Abby Hasselbring, is taking the fight on the road where she’ll be Cycling Against Slavery.  

All over the world normal people are taking up arms.  The Dragons are big and dangerous, but we serve a God who is King of Kings.  Not everyone needs to be on the front lines by skating across a state or biking halfway across a country, but we all need to take up that armor and do all to stand.  We can support those individuals who are doing the “crazy” things we can’t imagine.  Pray for them, give them a pat on the back, and donate to their causes.  Fight the Dragons in the corners of your world by showing love to an enemy, give your time and presence to the forgotten, offer a smile and kind words to the downtrodden.  Through even these simple acts, each of us has a Dragon Slayer within.  

Walking the Walk and Talking about LB255

Attribution: Wikiphoto

"It's a great day in the State of Nebraska."  Such was the laconic greeting of one of my college professors.  Today, this most certainly is the case.  

Earlier today, as Nebraska legislators met to close the 2013 session, one item on the agenda was LB255.  This bill, championed by Senator Amanda McGill, was a huge step forward in how Nebraska fights human trafficking.  LB255 strengthens penalties for those that would prey upon minors for sexual acts.  The legislation also helps to protect young girls and boys that are forced or coerced into prostitution.  Under this law, those minors are treated like victims deserving of treatment rather than as criminals.  

I'm happy to report that among the legislative business accomplished today by Nebraska's senators, they unanimously passed LB255 and Governor Heineman has signed it into law.  Nebraska is now among the leading edge of states and municipalities acting to thwart human trafficking.  

So, what do we do now?  If you've read this blog or are familiar with Acts in Motion's legacy, you know that we here talk a lot about social justice.  But talking is one thing, walking the walk is quite another.  

This coming Saturday, June 8th, is the No Girl Should Be For Sale Walk.  Its a walk event sponsored by non-profit anti-trafficking organization, I've Got A Name.  The event will be raising awareness and funds to make a stand for exploited youth in Lincoln.  Watch I've Got A Name's promotional video:  

The video is a lot of fun.  And I've Got A Name founder, Bob Burton, certainly used his connections among Cornhusker Athletics to grab the state's biggest celebrities.  The No Girl Should Be For Sale Walk will hopefully be a big hit.  I hope I've Got A Name can use it to springboard their work and protect even more at-risk girls, but is it enough for us to strap on a set of heels and "walk a mile in her shoes"?  

This great post by Samantha Escobar does a far better job than I can explaining where a "walk a mile in her shoes" event falls short.  The gist is that guys walking around in heels is a pretty silly way to address an issue like sexual violence and prostitution of minors, and yet it is doing something.  If this is an entry point for some people, if they feel they can at least engage this issue at a mile long walk where men wear high heels, than that is a starting point.  But we have to realize that it takes a lot more action to stop an issue as complex and wide ranging as human trafficking.  

The passing of LB255 is one of those actions.  The work that I've Got A Name is doing in conjuction with The Bay is another.  A friend of mine is using this walk event as a first step in a journey that will bring her into the thick of the trafficking battle.  She's putting together a team that will go to sponsoring a solo bike trip along the Oregon Trail, in which she will talk to groups and churches that will have her over about the problem of sexual slavery.  That trip will continue to raise awareness and funds that will eventually be used to send her to Nepal to work with trafficking victims there.  Now, that's crazy and awesome!  I hope that we can all be so brave in taking action against trafficking.  

We, Nebraskans, have made a lot of great strides to support this battle.  This No Girl Should Be For Sale Walk is a way to show our legislators they made the right decision.  It's a way that we can tell I've Got A Name we support their efforts.  We can encourage my friend and others by registering under their teams and at least walking with them this far.  (If you're interested I highly recommend registering under Team Abby).  But don't let this one-mile walk be the end of your journey.  I hope to see you at the No Girl Should Be For Sale Walk on June 8th and after that on the front lines of efforts to end slavery and trafficking in our generation.  

Perception and the Power of a Private Apocalypse

Have you ever been wrong about something?  Repeatedly.  Consistently.  As in the entirety of your experience concerning this particular issue has revolved around your incredible capacity for wrongness.

Let me tell you something.  That kind of experience screws with your head, because it turns out, you've only EVER experienced a type of fiction in this matter.  You begin to perceive outside stimuli in the light of a narrative that exists only in the gray matter between your ears.  It’s a happy little narrative, but if such a thing is to mature it must inevitably escape your private perceptions and be presented to the very real world of other people’s reactions.  In my case, every instance that sees this narrative cast into the cold, hard light of truth results in it being dashed (again and again) against the unforgiving asphalt of reality.  

So, the you that lives inside your head concocts a new narrative.  One that hopes to supersede any further narratives that come along.  And that is this: the particular experience that you’ve been seeking is for you only a pleasant fiction.  That’s not to detract from other people who experience it rapturously (the jerks).  It’s just that your own track bypasses this station altogether. 

Life goes on.  You begin to take to heart the narrative that insists you of all humans are denied this one thing.  It becomes your shield against the inevitability of future soul crushing forays into real experience.  And then events begin to take shape.  The old evidences you would have considered definitive in past come again across your path, but this time your prepared to sweep them aside.  You will not be taken captive by your imagination’s overactive story weaving.  You KNOW this time that such a narrative is foreign to your experience.  So, you deny evidence and press forward with the conviction that in this one issue you are indeed alone.  

I can’t really point to the single blow that tumbled this house of cards I had built around myself, and as I consider recent history, its distinctly possible that it was always a rickety and wavering thing.  During the last couple of weeks, the light has been shining through the cracks in my self-deception.   I spent more and more time considering evidence that I have been and idiot.  I allowed myself to consider old reactions and exchanges in the light of those forgotten, familiar narratives.  

The tipping point came earlier this week while at work.  I was presented with a situation that, to my mind, betrayed the possibility that I had fought for my own self-preservation in a foolish and deceptive way for far too long.  I considered that I had not only stubbornly denied myself a great blessing, but that along the way I had unintentionally caused some degree of hurt as well.  

That change in perception was in some small way cataclysmic.  And because my mind, never a courteous beast, thought through these perceptions while at work, I started breaking down.  Surely, my irritability was caused by a difficult customer.  My sullen attitude was due to a smashed hand.  My watery eyes and coarse voice were the result  of being bent over hands and knees trying to clean a chlorine spill.  These are the excuses I gave to my coworkers.  I attempted to use them to convince myself.  

The truth was I had experienced a very private apocalypse.  I had to recognize that one world had ended.  I had built a world of perceptions and deceit that I was an island in the world.  That I could stand alone, and it wasn’t going to matter to anyone else.  It was a sad, deceptive little narrative.  I thought it kept me safe, but mostly it kept me blind.  

Now, that world was gone.  It imploded under the weight of my changes in perception.  This cataclysmic change in the landscape of my mind eventually accomplished two things.  First, it revealed and crushed my self-deception.  This hurt.  It is never a comfort to learn that you have been lying to yourself, and especially to imagine that those lies result in real pain in the world.  

Second, it helped me to realize anew how fortunate I am.  Despite my card-constructed fortress, I have people that care about me.  Despite my faults and foibles, Jesus Christ found me worthy to redeem.  Despite the lies I use to hem myself in, I am free.  Free from sin, free from my broken past, free to act and aid those who are less fortunate.  

There are plenty of those.  There are 27 million people in the world today who are enslaved in one form or another.  About 11% of the global population is restrained by cultural and economic factors from such a basic human need as clean water.  

Sometimes it takes a private apocalypse to breakdown the fictional worlds we build around ourselves.  Coming to the end of yourself allows you to see beyond the narrow confines of personal problems.  It gives us the opportunity to realize that we continue on beyond these fictional barriers we’ve erected, and we are stronger for it.  

In this way, breaking down is like resurrection.  I can come out the other side feeling stronger.  More whole.  I can cast aside the stories I’ve been trying to force myself into and try to move forward.  Isaac Bashevis Singer puts it this way, “Life is God’s novel.  Let Him write it.”  

I look forward to the next chapter.  How about you?