Botswana is LONELY PLANET'S Best place to visit in the world for 2016!

This is what the Lonely Planet website says in its promo for Botswana. 

Democratic, progressive, enlightened – but above all, invigoratingly wild. The story of Botswana’s journey from poverty to become one of Africa’s most stable, thriving societies is inspirational; the country celebrates 50 years of independence in 2016 and there’s a lot for it to shout about, not least the way it has balanced economic growth with protecting its natural riches. Prepare for a severe case of slack-jawed-with-awe syndrome when you visit.

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel/countries/1#ixzz3xPDDfHi5



So when are you coming?

Come and support a developing African country in its efforts to grow its tourism industry, and see some amazing aspects of God's creation in the process.

It's sometimes easy to become a little blase about the beauty around us and the delights of the local wildlife when we are living around so much of it all the time, but it really is magnificent and it continues to delight us.

Just last week I heard a noise outside our window and looked out to see a huge baboon sitting comfortably in a dip of a tree branch snacking on berries and then just nearby was a new baby baboon clinging tightly to his mama's belly as she strolled around the bush.  Then yesterday I saw a movement outside the window and looked up to see a squirrel scurry across our pergola rafter.

Whether its spectacular storms or splendid sunsets or big baboons or scurrying squirrels and any other bush delights, a visit to Botswana is sure to be memorable.

And don't forget there is also the Okavango Delta - the largest inland Delta in the world and just a few minutes across the border into Zambia or Zimbabwe there are the magnificent Victoria Falls.

And did you know that there are more elephants in Botswana than any other country?

Come and be delighted!....and we would be delighted if you chose to 'pop in' for a visit while you are in the area!

Wordwatch: GRACE

Grace

It's maybe one of the most commonly used words in Christianity and essentially the central theme of Scripture. 

According to biblehub.com its a word used over 200 times (greek or hebrew).

But we don't stop to think of its significance in relation to honour and shame. I know I didn't.

Interestingly, two of the major honour/shame voices in the current international evangelical honour/shame conversation (Culture Learner and honorshame.com) have published on their blogs word collections that reflect synonyms, metaphors and associated words for honour and shame to help expand one's understanding of these concepts....but neither have included the word 'Grace'.  This is not a criticism, but an observation highlighting how easily we can overlook something that is constantly staring us in the face.  And its an omission that is personally challenging because until very recently, the honour context of this word 'grace' didn't come clearly and profoundly to me either.

There is mention on both word collections of words which are tied to the meaning of Grace, such as blessing and favour, but the actual word 'grace' is not there.

It's a word that has become almost so commonly used that we have maybe overlooked its significance. 

For many of us the most we know about the meaning of Grace is via the acronym:  "God's Riches At Christ's Expense"

The Word:

......Grace, according to biblehub.com and Vines Dictionary embodies the meaning of favour and blessing.  

We have already looked at the word blessing and its association with honour in an earlier blogpost. 

Favour is also essentially honour. To be favoured is to be honoured - to receive honour especially with its practical results.  It has the connotation in it that the one bestowing the favour didn't have to, but chose to.  It also infers that the recipient has been chosen in some way to receive the favour.  Favour infers that it is something above or more than what the rest of the group, population or humanity has as the average experience.

MiriamWebster dictionary on-line alludes to the honour factor of the word in synonyms such as favour/benevolence/courtesy when speaking of the noun form, but very interestingly when it gives definition of the verb form it says quite explicitly "to confer dignity or honor on".  

Their definition for kids of the verb form has one word - 'honor'.

If we stop to think about it, we do actually hear the two words 'honour' and 'grace' interchanged but in a context that has given them an almost abstract meaning. When we hear it said in old English movies  'Yes your Grace' or 'Yes your Honour'.  While for many these are just 'the words you say' in a particular setting without a thought as to the meaning or origin of the words, they are both showing respect and deference, submission and humility.

The english word 'grace' (and the spanish word gracia) came from the Latin word 'gratus'.  

Gracia in Spanish essentially means 'thankyou'.  

In English, we have the obvious word 'gratitude' meaning thankfulness (similarly to the Spanish).  

And we should not forget the word 'disgrace'. We use it very readily as a synonym for 'shame' without  consciously thinking about the fact that it includes the word 'grace', in saying it is the opposite of grace ....since the latin prefix 'dis' means the 'opposite' to  or apart from.

(I earlier mentioned that the word 'grace' wasn't in either of the word collections at 'Culture Learner' or 'honorshame.com'. But I must not neglect to mention that honorshame.com did include the word 'disgrace' in their collection of 'shame' words.)

In Scripture:

There are many, many passages of Scripture that talk about grace - it permeates all of scripture.

In fact in Genesis 6:8 when we are told that "Noah found favour/grace in the eyes of the Lord", the NASB translated the Hebrew word as favour and the KJV translates it as grace 

Acts 7:46 and 11:23 are other examples of this word - in the first reference both NASB and KJV translate it as 'favour' before God, and in the second both translate it as the  'grace' of God.

God's grace is His favour.  It is His undeserved honour gift to us.  By grace we have been saved (same greek word) - by God's favour - by the Honour we have received - it is the means by which we are saved.  The honour we have received is the honour of being in Christ, clothed in His righteousness.

The Brown-Driver-Brigg Old Testament Notes comments on the Hebrew word  'chen'  as saying it means such things as 'favour, grace, acceptance'.  They refer to finding favour, giving favour and obtaining favour 'in the eyes of' man or God.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

 on biblehub.com even included the following as part of its details on the word 'charis' - the word for grace which really emphasise the honour factor of this word:

'verbal pleasantries which the foolish affect in order to ingratiate themselves, Sir. 20:13'

'χάρις

is used of the kindness of a master toward his inferiors or servants, and so especially of God toward men: εὑρίσκειν χάριν παρά τῷ Θεῷ, Luke 1:30'

From before salvation through to our daily Christian lives, it is all about the honour we have in Christ - the incredible undeserved favour and honour which God gives us in Christ.

As Thayers also says:  "τό εὐαγγέλιον τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ, Acts 20:24; it is styled 'the grace of Christ,' in that through pity for sinful men Christ left his state of blessedness with God in heaven, and voluntarily underwent the hardships and miseries of human life, and by his sufferings and death procured salvation for mankind: (Acts 15:11); 2 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 5:15; Galatians 1:6; (Titus 3:7); John 1:14, 17. χάρις is used of "the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues": 2 Corinthians 4:15; 2 Corinthians 6:1.........the favor of Christ, assisting and strengthening his followers and ministers to bear their troubles, 2 Corinthians 12:9."

And then as Thayers goes on to say this can also be translated in terms of thankfulness, but it has the underlying meaning of thankfulness for the favour received -" thanks (for benefits, services, favors); properly: χάριτι, with thanksgiving, 1 Corinthians 10:30"

As we have already noted, this is seen in the english word 'gratitude'...reflecting an honouring the person in return who has honoured you. It is similar to the concept of blessing those who bless you or thanking those who bless you.  This is also where we get the idea of 'saying grace' for our food.  Although it is now a term almost devoid of its original meaning, it is not unrelated to 'blessing God for the food' or 'giving thanks for the food'.

Replacing the Misplaced:

Like the Galatians we can so easily forget that the grace of God is a gift.  Our salvation is not gained from our good works. Our good works flow out of a thankful heart for the gift of honour received, not from an effort to achieve approval so as to 'get' honour from someone else.

In a culture that often doesn't have a great comprehension of a free gift, this is not an easy concept to comprehend. Where giving is on the understanding of 'building credit' with others so that others later can be made to feel obligated to reciprocate, the concept of giving with no expectation of returned favour is not necessarily on the radar.  In fact this mis-placed understanding of giving in general and the giving of love and honour can be so mis-placed that a gift 'freely given' can be viewed suspiciously rather than thankfully.  A girl I mentored decided to give her mum a gift and card for Mother's Day and instead of it being received with joy and thankfulness, it was received with suspicion and a 'So what do you want from me?'  No efforts to explain that it was simply a gift were accepted by the mother who was more and more convinced that with each negation of ulterior motive the daughter was more deeply hiding her true reason for the gift.

A young pastor friend who we had had much interaction over time, once bought my husband a can of coke and when my husband mentioned about sharing it, the young pastor said 'no, I want to feel what you feel when you give'.  He wanted to sit and have my husband enjoy the gift with no expectation of something in return.

The concept of grace can easily become warped when the cultural concept of 'gift' is warped.  Giving to God from a heart that thinks God expects our good works before we can receive further favour, can often replace giving from a heart that is joyfully thankful to give honour and love to God who freely loved us and gave us honour first.  Many fail to understand that God lavishly bestowed His honour and continues to do so, not because he has to, due to some reciprocal agreement, but because He wants to and has chosen to in Christ, from the overflow of His loving heart.

GRACE is maybe one of the most significant words for a Christian.  It is heavy with meaning.  And that meaning is deeply rooted in the concept of honour.

If we could pause long enough when we read this little word to allow its depth of meaning to penetrate our minds and hearts instead of it just rolling over us like 'water off a ducks back', how might it impact our lives, our witness and cross-cultural missions?

Interestingly after writing the above, I learnt that a book has been recently released by theologian John M Barclay called 'Paul and the gift' and its causing quite a stir with its excellence.  It has been described as 'paradigm shifting', 'ground-breaking' and 'pioneering'!  Honour/Shame bloggers Jackson Wu and honorshame.com have both in recent days already had positive words to say about the book and the light is throws on the concept of grace, in particular some of its honour/shame dynamics. 

The Three-fold Essence of Honour

The world tells us that to function as proper human beings that the foundation issue is that we must feel we have received love.

Scripture tells us that God's greatest commandment is to give love - first to God, and then to others from an outflow of our love for God.   If we all gave love, there would be no issue in our world of lack of receiving love. 

But what does love do for us that is so important?

In a word - honour.  Love demonstrates honour. 

The essence of honour

What is honour - what does it mean to honour?

We use synonyms such as esteem, value, praise, respect, but although these round out the concept they don't give us the 'nuts and bolts' of it.

As I have thought more and more about this, three factors seem to emerge - like three pillars that honour rests on.

They are: approval, acceptance and significance.

When we receive honour we are essentially receiving these three, and when we give honour we are essentially giving these three.

We were made to receive honour and give honour.....from God.

Although in our sin we seek honour from outside of God, it is still these three elements that we seek to receive and inevitably give.

Approval: we yearn to know that we are 'ok' in the eyes of others, that we are 'right', that we are 'correct', that all is 'good' between us and others, that we 'passed' the test of other's criteria, that we 'did well', that others are smiling at us, have given us the 'nod'....and if you are Australian - that others have said 'Good onya mate'!  To be noticed and thought of as good to be around is a driving motive of us all.

Acceptance: we long for approval because we long for acceptance.  We want to belong.  As much as the Western world applauds individualism, at heart we know we were made for relationship and interaction with others.  We don't like being excluded or rejected, left out, shunned, or ignored. We want to be a part of what is going on around us, knowing inherently we are part of a bigger picture than just ourselves.  In fact, a new psychological condition has been called 'FOMO' - or Fear Of Missing Out. Wikipedia mentions that "A study by Andrew Przybylski found that the FoMO condition was most common in those who had unsatisfied psychological needs such as wanting to be loved and respected.^[6]"    It is what is driving so much of social media - people desperately want connection with others and acceptance from others.....we are programmed - created - for acceptance and inclusion in the group. God made us to bask and revel in His acceptance, but when we ignore or reject that we seek substitutes elsewhere.

Significance:  this is what we gain from approval and acceptance.  To be approved and accepted gives a sense of value to one's existence. To have significance is to feel that we count for something. Whether we realise it of not it gives a sense of purpose and reason for life.  It gives worth to one's very being.  It says 'I matter'.  To feel as if one doesn't matter to this world and the people in it, that if you disappeared no one would notice or care, brings hopelessness and despair.  

Whether we seek these through our position or through our achievements (otherwise known as ascribed vs achieved honour), the reality is that we seek them.  We are 'hard-wired' to seek them.  We want to be liked, we want to be able to hear from others and tell ourselves that we deserve some honour for who we are and what we do.

Where we go wrong.....

Where we go wrong, is that we seek these three factors from people around us instead of from God our creator. We seek it from fickle, changing, sinful and finite human beings instead of from the steadfast, unchanging, holy and eternal God.

Not only do we seek these three factors from people but we give these three attributions to people instead of God first.  We give our approval and alignment to people rather than God, we give our eager acceptance to what people have to offer instead of what God wants to give us, and we place people as more significant in our lives than God. 

When God says that those who honour Him, He will honour, it means that when we are willing to give our approval to God as the only Holy and Righteous One and accept Him as He is and the terms of His gifts, blessings and salvation in Christ, and give Him the place of supreme significance in our lives as Ruler, King, Director and Lord, THEN and only then will we also know the joy of His approval of us in Christ, our acceptance in Christ and our significance as not only His creation but also His redeemed and loved children and joint heirs with His Son.

Where we also go wrong is that we absorb the world's instruction manual on how to attain such honour.  We think to get the elevated place of approval, acceptance and significance, means we have to seek to elevate ourselves up, up, up. And if no-one else approves of us or 'loves' us, we are told we have to love ourselves or accept ourselves and like ourselves first - not because we are created in the image of God and of value to Him, but we tell ourselves we are good as we are without the need for anyone else's opinion at all. We think of ourselves, our opinions, methods, desires and goals as most important and the key to our sense of fulfilment and honour. We have moved from living before the eyes of God and in His sight, to the sight of others and even just ourselves.

But when we seek this route we are following our father the devil who sought to exalt himself higher as an angel and the result was that God put him down, down, down.

We fail to seek the way of Jesus who was willing to lower himself down to the lowest position and God raised him up, up, up.

In God's scheme of things, the way up, is down.  Humility, not pride, is the road to honour.  It is only when we are prepared to lose our life that we will find it, and when we are willing to deny ourselves that we find greatest significance in being a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

It is when we begin to enjoin ourselves to God's agenda  and we abandon our own agendas for advancement, as the way to approval, acceptance and significance, that we enjoy the realities of Jesus Christ living in and through us by the Spirit. We need to change our mind - repent - turn around from our own ideas about love and honour and how to attain and experience it.  

From where are you seeking approval, acceptance and significance?

Do you get upset if you don't feel as if you are appreciated or appropriately acknowledged?  Do you constantly criticise, find fault, put others down, and joke about other's inadequacies.  These are all signs of seeking approval, acceptance and significance from people. We put others down in order to lift ourselves up. But people will never satisfy our deepest desires in these areas.  People will let us down.  People aren't perfect. And guess what?.....you and those around you, are people!  Only God can truly satisfy.  And as John Piper says "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him'.

Less of 'us' and more of 'Him' is the way to true honour and true love. 

Hard Work vs Relationships....is it a matter of honour?

A recent article talked about hard work in the Western world and how we feel 'good' if we think we have worked hard, and how we expect hard work from others.  We like to know that a task accomplished meant that someone devoted diligent persevering hard work to accomplish it.  Research has shown that if we think it was too 'easy' for them, we don't feel as much compassion toward them or as much thankfulness for their task.

The reading of this article has come on the heels of finding yet another article about Botswana's work ethic.  By all reports over the last several years it has been rated pretty poorly and is getting worse.  A recent report labelled Botswana as the laziest of the continent.

Well I must say that in our recent heat, I am thoroughly reminded of why people 'go slow'.  40 + degree days (that's celsius...= 104+ fahrenheit),  of single digit humidity day after day, is enough to sap anyone's energy, hydration and alertness. Temperatures that remain high at night as well, result in sleep deprivation which only makes matters worse. Did you know that your heart rate increases 20 beats per minute for every 10 degrees celsius that the ambient temperature rises above 20degrees? Dehydration negatively effects cognitive (brain) function. Being dehydrated by just 2% impairs performance in tasks that require attention, psychomotor, and immediate memory skills, as well as assessment of the subjective state. Prolonged states of reduced water intake may adversely impact executive functions such as planning and visuo-spatial processing.

So....

Are the people of Botswana truly lazy? 

Are Westerners really to be held up as the epitome of hard workers?......

In the West, hard work, is honourable.

(or should I say 'busyness' and physical seen activity, as the appearance of hard work)

 To a great degree we associate activity and hard work with accomplishment and success.  The article pointed out that this poses a problem, especially for people in 'creative' pursuits - they can appear to take a lot of 'time off' because their intense work can be accomplished in a few hours. 

As I thought more about this, there is also a need for 'relax' and 'chill out' time for the creative person's brain to be in a state in which the creative/thinking time is productive.  In other words their chill out time is preparation for their output - no different to time taken to buy all the materials in preparation to then actually physically build a shed.  The buying is part of the work too.  But its easy for Westerners to 'look down' on creative people as not being 'hard workers'.

As Westerners, if we are not 'busy' and even 'tired' from being busy, we almost consider ourselves as 'less' than acceptable, less than honourable. We are extremely task oriented. Books such as 'Crazy Busy' were written to address such a problem.

(it is worth noting that Japan also has 'hard work is honourable' as part of their cultural values but for a different reason - it is honourable because hard work gets a person a high position or helps earn lots of money so as to put children into expensive schools and university and both bring honour to the name of the immediate and extended family)

But....


In Africa, strong relationships is what is honorable.



We usually don't equate 'hard work' as sitting having coffee with people.  However, this might not be physical work but it might be psychological and emotional and mental work! Talking, especially counselling, verbal negotiation, conflict resolution and discussion related to important decisions can be exhausting and require intense concentration.  I have learnt from my own medical condition just how much the heart rate can be raised through intense thinking, analysing and processing in the midst of conversation. Our body doesn't have to be moving for our brain to be intensely active.  In fact though our brain is only 2% of our bodyweight, it consumes 20% of our energy.

Yet we don't tend to think of it that way. 

For an African, it is also of far more importance to spend long amounts of time in careful conversation to ensure relationships are in good order (and to the extent of having plenty of 'credit' in the relationship account), than to exert oneself physically for the sake of 'busyness'.

A while back in the midst of various power crises here, I recall a government spokesperson made a comment that 'we' have not paid good enough attention to the business of maintenance.

As I consider this hardwork/laziness dichotomy, the same principle applies to the 'maintenance' issue.  It's not that Africans have no regard for maintenance at all, its just that what people value, they maintain.  An African values (honours) relationships over things, so an African is more concerned with spending time working on and maintaining relationships so they remain in good condition.  Hard work on maintaining 'things' is culturally a secondary issue. (not necessarily a non-issue, but just not the priority)  Maintenance as a concept is not the issue, what is maintained and why, is the issue!

The difficulty has come when Africa wants what the West has got in infrastructure and technological advancement, without understanding  that the West has come to value 'stuff' over people, and task over relationships.  Greed for 'material wealth' will stifle relationships, and a jealous and greedy attachment to relationships will stifle material benefit from the abundance God has given us in our world.  All that excessive 'stuff' comes at a price.  Does Africa want to pay that price?

The issue isn't only that Africa might have an 'honour' emphasis,
but what it is that Africa considers honourable.

A Westerner (generally speaking) will sacrifice a relationship in order to get a task done and acquire 'stuff', because physical evidence of achievement gains a person honour.  When we work hard and there's nothing to 'show for it' and we are made to feel like we must have made poor choices and wasted our time, and thus are 'looked down on' (shamed).

An African on the other hand, will sacrifice a task in order to preserve or better a relationship because who you know, who you are connected to, and who you can call on, brings success, and making sure relationships are in good order is honourable.

Both can learn from each other.  Westerners need to value community and relationships more.  'Doing' tasks may not be as important as we sometimes think, as 'being' with people. How often have we heard that when an old man dies in the West he may wish he had spent more time with his family but never wishes he had spent more time at his job? A woman may have a spotless home but no 'space' for kids to be creative and a bit messy in the process.  And Africans may need to learn to work harder at physical tasks if infrastructure advancement is to occur.

But we certainly don't want Africa becoming like the West where tasks can be the dominant focus and families are broken.

The West has become a place where hard work has morphed from something by which we can glorify God through the strength He has given for the purposes He has called us, into a cultural character quality that is to be pursued at the cost of everything else -  so as to achieve status and honour for ourselves.  A desire to honour God through hard work, has been replaced with a demand on ourselves and others to work hard or be despised.  This problem is not caused by a 'protestant work ethic' as some might suggest, but by a self-centred work ethic.

Whether one is African or Western, either one can elevate what is valued and honoured to the place of an unconsciously obsessive and all-consuming focus.  Both can have a self-centred work ethic - ie seeking honour for themselves rather than God.

Sometimes hard work and even 'overwork' can feel 'holy', especially if it is in the context of ministry - church workers, missionaries and pastors can find the 'line' of where overwork begins as difficult as all the work seems to be 'for God'.  Eric Geiger on his blog included this comment:

In most roles, overwork feels sinful and neglectful. In ministry, overwork can wrongly feel holy. After all, you are “doing all these things for the Lord and for people.” Some leaders struggle to say no because doing so would feel like denying ministry to people. Leaders can justify all the hours in their minds, the neglect of their own souls, and the neglect of their families. Ministry can attract workaholics and give them a reason to justify their addiction.

Either tasks or people can become an idol: on this earth must both come under the overarching and supreme obligation we have to the One who created us.

If we don't have as first priority, the 'vertical' life mandate to Love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, we will get our secondary 'horizontal' life out of balance.

In God's agenda, neither task nor people are first priority, He is!

Whether we are Western or African we have to ask ourselves, "Are we on God's eternal heavenly agenda or on our own earthly temporary cultural agenda?" 

Neither people nor tasks are an end in themselves as our earthly cultures want them to be.

God is to be our one and only goal - to honour, love and please Him. It is our relationship with Him that is above earthly relationships and tasks.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the author and finisher of our faith. He is meant to be our starting point and end point and Director and Goal of everything in-between. 

And in God's agenda it is people who will last into eternity.  Tasks on their own will not last, especially when they are devoted entirely to acquiring or preserving'stuff' that moth and rust will destroy.  Tasks in God's agenda are simply the means by which we do what pleases Him - loving the people He created and taking care and making best use of the world He created, in a way that honours and glorifies Him.

Although the first command given to mankind in the garden of Eden before the fall was a task - to multiply, fill the earth, rule over and put to use its animals, plants and land. (Gen 1:28), Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are both about relationships - with God and then with other people. 

So while African traditional belief might have the people dimension mis-placed in how it elevates honour of people above God, it seems it may be closer to the truth of God's design than the increasingly secular West that elevates task accomplishment above both other people and God.

So is your hard work in the category of honouring God, or the category of idolatry? 

    Are your relationships in the category of honouring God, or of idolatry?

These are two questions I have to regularly ask myself too!

When we have God in the place of Highest Honour, we will begin to know His wisdom to keep both task and people in balance according to God's will and purposes.

People last for eternity, the tasks themselves do not. 

Tasks may be part of the means of reaching people and loving people but they are not the ends.


Let us not forget, that it was in obedience to the sending by the Father, Jesus came to this earth to accomplish a task but for the purpose of redeeming people!

May we also, because of Honour and Love for the Father, obey Him in the tasks He has set us of being vessels He can use to show the world Himself through us so as to reconcile people to Himself.