I’ve recently begun reading a few writers on Substack. There’s Michael Bird, Scot McKnight, Beth Felker Jones, and others who all fit nicely in the category of theologians and Biblical scholars. But then there’s another, Jeff Chu, a gifted writer, a theologian, yes, but who writes in a way so unlike the others.
Right now the following two recent articles by Jeff Chu will supply me with plenty to ponder for the months ahead.
His piece, Praying for Unrest, 1 continues to linger in my heart and mind. Please take some time to read it.
What would it mean to pray for unrest and not peace?
Chu’s piece was timely. I read it lying in bed the other night. A recent skirmish between two of my beloved children was yet fresh on my aching heart.
I wanted peace. What if unrest is what is needed?
Chu explains what prayer for unrest is and is not:
“[P]rayer for unrest is not a prayer for violence … this kind of unrest is a stirring in the soul, a shaking of the spirit. It is compassion and shared sorrow, mourning with those who mourn and weeping with those who weep. To pray for unrest is to be discontent with the way things are right now … To pray for unrest is to admit that we haven’t loved one another as we should and to acknowledge that we need help.” (my emphasis)
That last sentence nearly knocked me to my knees.
A sign hanging on a wall in my kitchen reads, “Peace on Earth Begins at Home.” What if unrest is necessary for peace to come? When skirmishes happen, which they will, I hold myself responsible. Did I fail to exemplify peace in my home?
So I will pray for unrest.
May my own heart be restless as I sort out how I have failed to love well.
I will pray for unrest.
May I have courage to reveal my weaknesses and areas of need.
This brings me to share a few revelations from another article I read this morning, also by Chu: Blessed Are the Needy
This article addresses the need for compassionate communication. Trust me, it is a painful, convicting, and is at times downright offensive to read, in a good kind of way. And it is necessary!
The unrest is already taking place!
Here’s the first offending paragraph:
“Before I stepped into Professor Hunsinger’s classroom, I had a less-than-charitable understanding of the word “need.” Beyond the basics—food, water, shelter—I saw “need” as a negative. Needs were to be hidden or overcome, not to be met or shared. To be needy was to be weak.”
Ouch!! This is me to the T. I read this paragraph over and over before proceeding to the next. I felt slapped in the face.
When needs aren’t met at an early age we preserve our self by hiding them. I’m highly skilled in this area. Today, attempts to offer me help are frequently met with, “I’ve got this, no thanks!” Why? Why have I hidden my true self from those I love? I am a very needy person!
And here’s another. Chu continued:
“That wasn’t all: “Needs are invitations,” she [the professor from his early seminary days] insisted. They invite us to recognize that we aren’t self-sufficient beings, to acknowledge our interdependence, and to open ourselves to love.”
I want so much to agree with the above statement, but find myself unsettled by it. A fear of mine is that after admitting a need to another that that very need continues to be unmet. The invitation discarded. Or worse yet, that need becomes weaponized to manipulate and control. This takes unrest to another level! Am I up for this?
Chu continues:
“Sometimes, when we try to meet our very legitimate needs, we attempt strategies that harm others and we make choices that are destructive. Sometimes, when we seek to name and address our heartfelt, even laudable desires, we hurt others. Sometimes, when we pursue our own healing, we inflict grievous wounds on our neighbors.”
I could work through this paragraph one sentence at a time listing the ways I’ve attempted to meet my needs all on my lonesome. How many times have I shut someone out? Perhaps that is a task to sort out and remedy this coming year.
I’ve convinced myself that it is right and good to have my trust appropriately placed in God alone and not in another person. Others may need, but not I, I tell myself.
Little did I realize that the human condition intends us, intends me, to need.
Chu’s article causes unrest in my soul! Need is not a malfunction of the self! To deny the need is the malfunction!
Why has it taken so long to learn this? We are created dependent. May I repent of the hubris on by part to think I could bypass this human condition!
I’m greatly relieved Chu closed this painful essay with comforting words:
“Blessed are the needy, for they are painfully, beautifully human—and they will be met, somehow, some way, by the divine.”