LIVING IN THE GHETTO

 SURPRISE--I am reading another book!

his


I LOVE to read a book that challenges my thinking and this author has my head spinning and I am only half way through it.  When he started talking about us all living in ghettos, I thought he was off his rocker.  Obviously he has not visited The Hood.  It's no ghetto!  And then he began to broaden my perspectives with passages such as this ~

   By ghetto, I don't mean a run-down, densely populated urban area characterized by blight, crime, and poverty . (Side note-man's definition)   I'm talking about ghetto as an environment where a group of people live or work in isolation, whether by choice or circumstance, and draw their sense of worth and dignity from their identification with that community.

UH-OH- now he's meddling!

This entire section is based upon a teaching based upon the story of the Tower of Babel.  He begins by explaining why God came down to gaze upon the works of the people and then why He not only confused the tongues of them, but also spread them out across the land.  It is a great teaching and I am not going to spoil it by trying to explain it.  Please get the book, or borrow mine when I am finished (it does have loads of underlining).  

The author has plenty to say about this, but this phrase from the book had me nodding my head in total agreement.  I not only underlined, but putting a star by the passage.

   What I am speaking to is the futility of trying to make our own way apart from God, the futility of thinking so arrogantly that we could possibly do anything worthy of God's recognition apart from Him working in and through us  ~ apart from us working for His glory and not out own.

I often speak to our greatest sin is trying to place ourselves on The Throne.  This is exactly what the author is speaking of here.  NOW--hold on to your hat--the author then tells us there is grace in the judgement of Babel.  WHAT?  "How much worse would this world be if God allowed us to continue to be united in our sinful purposes?"  The author contends if we all "just got along", we would be joined together in an effort to establish ourselves as God.  OH NO, NOT ME!  Yes, me too, sadly.  

   In  judgement and mercy, He confused our language.  They were trying to make a name for themselves, and the name they end up with is the name God gives them in Genesis-"Confusion".  As a result of the confusion we no longer trust each other.  The spirit of Babel is still with us.  We are still in solidarity against God, yet this solidarity is expressed in isolated communities.  These ghettos, because they are in rebellion against God, are also naturally against each other.  What happens is we understand our human dignity  and value as coming from isolated community.  We love our ghetto, our ethnic ghettos, our social ghettos, our cultural ghettos, our economic ghettos, our academic ghettos.  We love them to a fault.  When we see differences , we don't embrace our dissimilarity, we immediately distrust.  We instinctively reject and often mock because we're still confused and don't understand each other.  

You have no idea how much your understanding of what it means to be human, to live a good life, to experience love, to be a friend, husband, wife and worker is shaped by your ghetto.  We're blind to it many facets because we have swum in its water our whole lives.  When we see or experience something different, our first impulse is to react in judgement of that difference.  

OH MY!  GUILTY AS CHARGED!  I don't often quote another writer at such length in a blog.  This was too important to mess up with my own feeble attempt to explain what he is saying.  Think about this!  I have never had a better explanation of The Tower of Babel passage.  I'm praying for deeper understanding and greater capacity to see beyond the tip of my nose.  God does want us to live in Beautiful Community.  It begins with listening to each other and seeking His wisdom.  I have been challenged--I challenge you to think about it.

"This is why the city was called Babel, 

because that is where the lord confused the people

with different languages."

Genesis 11:9


2 comments

  1. What an eye-opening book, Lulu! I haven't had the tower of Babel story explained so well before. Think this book will be added to my wish list.
    Please pray for Mom and for us. She is back in the hospital and things don't look good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am praying, My Friend.
    Bless You All!

    ReplyDelete

Your comments keep my writing and often cause me to think. A written form of a hug or a pat on the back and an occasional slap into reality---I treasure them all!