The wisdom of the persecuted to stay vital as we age

Approximately 90% of people in tech speak only to other people in tech, so said a PR consultant to tech founders recently. The Economist recently reported that Lulu Cheng Meservey claimed this expected yet shocking conclusion.

Ninety percent of people in any given profession speak only to those in the same profession.

This is probably a rule of sorts. The 90/10 rule. Ninety percent of people in any given profession speak only to those in the same profession.

I know from experience this is the case with pastors. When you listen to your typical preacher, it is worrying to find their world so small.

I heard a Bishop lately. He had a Bible text. An epic one. But instead of dealing with the scripture, he quickly segued away from God to a thirty-minute disquisition on safeguarding policies for clerics, and this to an audience that was not predominantly clerical. His world of ecclesiastical bureaucracy was small, and he forgot this interests only a tiny few. 

We are tribal creatures.

The rule cannot be that surprising however, given that we are tribal creatures and most comfortable with our own.

But it is a shame, since one of the great adventures of being human is to have encounters with what is beyond us, or unlike us, so that we grow and not get stale in a smaller world than necessary.

Master the practice of forgiveness.

George Vaillant, the Harvard scientist who studied healthy ageing reckoned the two greatest disciplines for a fulfilling long life was (a) to master the practice of forgiveness, including of oneself, and (b) to preserve "a widening social radius." The older one gets, the more one’s lifelong circle dies off, and it takes quite a commitment to continue to make new friends. For Vaillant, if you do not, you will die earlier than you should.

Small world syndrome.

I have always benefited from an extensive interaction with the persecuted church of the world, although I must confess I did not actively seek it. I just fell into it. They delivered me from small world syndrome. It has been an astonishing stimulation and sometimes a painful one.

A gift for you.

When I visit to train preachers in one particular country, I set them an exercise to create a nugget of wisdom from our interaction and see how well they can preach on the truth of it. Their responses blow the 90/10 rule out of the water for me. Test yourself as well. Here is the list of wise words that I have received from them so far, with no annotation or explanation. It is a gift for you.

See how you get on… and grow!

• Remember, bombs are beautiful if they are designed to disrupt your work. That way you know you are making a difference.
• Be very worried if you are not in trouble for Jesus. It’s how you know you are alive.
• Watch out. There’s a big lie coming for you, and it wants you to make peace with it.
• Pay any price to support moderates, otherwise if they fail you give extremists a free run at power.
• Work the hardest on making Jesus personal. That’s your power for survival.
• Never disdain the miraculous but pay more attention to the mundane… you will see more of God there.
• The blessing of suffering is that it slows us down to encounter truth at the same rate as we can practice it.
• Trust in God but run the numbers.
• The ultimate conceit is to think you can rid the world of persecution.
• The smartest persecutor gets you to kill the church for them.
• Welcome the point when we cannot pray any more, then silence becomes the path.
• You must have a wound to be whole.
• Learn to long for the afterlife; it always comes sooner than you think.
• Identify The Four Horsemen but remember not to count.
• The golden route to joy is to love less, more.
• The most powerful posture of the Christian is to watch—even massacres turn into miracles over time.
• There is only one thing worse than thinking persecution will never happen here, and that is thinking persecution will never happen here now.
• Never lionize a persecuted Christian; they will soon fall from the plinth.
• The devil smiles the broadest when we shoot our own wounded—nothing stops the Gospel in its tracks than lovelessness between believers.
• Gratitude is not desirable but essential to survival.
• It is especially important to realize that when you read a page of scripture, all the others are temporarily closed to you. That will save you from cults.
• The highest goal of the persecutor is not to make atheists of us, but to make us grow cold in our love for Christ.
• Help the youth—the enemy likes to make the Christian fight their biggest battles before they turn 18.
• If it has been rightly said that the best way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans, the best way to make him cry is to put more religion into your faith.
• In times of extreme persecution, you must save the faith at the expense of the Church.
• When Jesus arrives into a situation, there will be blood, because evil knows its time is up.
• No one is ever ready to do a great work for God, but turning up is 90% of it.
• Rejoice that even the devil ends up promoting the gospel.
• Cultivate Easter laughter… especially outside Easter.
• Remember one person can make a difference, but no one person can make all the difference... except Christ!
• The benefit of persecution is not in the pain it brings, but in the emptying of our selves, leaving more of us for God to fill.
• In a prison yard, even a blade of grass can encourage—if you know how to look.
• Do not worry about whether your life has a purpose—that is for people to worry about in the small world where people have choices. In the bigger world, focus on receiving all the fullness of God which is available no matter what we do or where we live.
• It is a hard but vital truth that sometimes it is more important to witness than to live. On such acts are eternal kingdoms built.
• Prayer works best when it is a matter of life and death. That may appear a curse but its really a gift.
• Commit ten bible verses to memory—five from the life of Jesus—and they will be sure and solid steppingstones as you cross the furious rapids of life.
• There is no such thing as total darkness. Look harder and you will see a pinprick of light because God is still in everything.

Selah!

Dr. Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, serves as Chief of Research and Global Strategy at Global Christian Relief. He also is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute for Religious Freedom and a Research Associate at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. In addition, Ronald is Adjunct Professor of Practical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary focusing on understanding and learning from the suffering church as well as visiting Professor of Practical Theology and Spiritual Formation at Lahore College of Theology in Pakistan.