It is not an overstatement to say that George MacDonald has not only changed my life personally, but also missionally. We become like what we worship and our vocation takes on the flesh of whom we admire. “Love that is not ever expanding and deepening, is shriveling and dying.” I live in a country where 98% of the people I encounter daily are not Christians. How do I live as a follower of Jesus, as a true son of my Father, as a neighbor to these brothers and sisters? Where there is a command, I try at once to obey. Where there is silence, I wait. Where there is my neighbor’s need, I go to help. When there is my own need, I ask for help. I need a God I can both worship and trust, not only for myself, but also for my neighbors. I need a God who loves them not if they believe, but until they believe. I need hope for my restless soul, and for theirs.
I work for a small foundation that works with vulnerable children and families. We currently have five projects to serve these people. Our Family Strengthening project supports single parents to help them keep and care for their children, as well as keep them in school. Our Family Reunification project helps children from institutional care be reunited with their biological families when possible. Our Foster Care project helps place children without biological family in loving foster families. Our Children’s Homes project is a last resort for children without family or foster families to still have the opportunity to grow up in a loving environment. Our College Dorm provides scholarships and housing to young adults to help them further their education and open more opportunities to them in the future. It is wonderful, exhausting, rewarding, and at times frustrating work. And it is a wonderful teacher. I have used George MacDonald’s words to encourage my social-work and house-parent staff on many occasions. Learning to love those who cannot do anything for you, and who may often hurt you, is part of growing like God. It is also a great comfort in all our failings (and there are many) to lift up empty hands to God who is their Father as well as ours, and trust that He does not cease to care for that child, even if we are longer able.
“ Learning to love those who cannot do anything for you, and who may often hurt you, is part of growing like God.”
Probably most often, it is in the mission community, that I am trying to share the “alternative orthodoxy” of George MacDonald. We have started a small group for missionaries who are wrestling through questions of faith and God, to provide a safe place for them to dialogue about those big questions. I gave everyone a copy of MacDonald’s Consuming Fire at the beginning of our group. For many people, myself included, living in a totally new culture forces us to reevaluate much of the theology we inherited from our own culture. I love meeting new people, like my friend Richard, who are already in that process, and like me, looking for better alternatives. Consuming Fire has been one of the best way to introduce people who are already asking those questions to the transformational theology of George MacDonald.
