The Sixth Sense

Peacekeeping Rapists - Why?

Stories like those emerging about UN peacekeepers raping and abusing children seem to be affecting me more than ever at the moment.

I think it’s tied in with all the thinking I’m doing at the moment about what it means to be human and the blog series I’m doing on that theme.

I’m very aware of my own weaknesses and short-comings, but I still struggle to get my head around the idea of peacekeepers, motivated (surely?) to want to do good in the world, ending up raping and abusing the very people they set out to help.

“Elizabeth”, the girl in the picture, was raped and then abandoned by 10 peacekeepers (read her story here). Why? What satisfaction can anyone get from this? It’s so…inhumane. It’s not human behaviour. I was going to say it is behaviour more akin to animals, but that wouldn’t be fair on most animal species.

How is it that inhumane behaviour is so prevalent? What can be done do turn things around?

How do I ensure that my own life is on a trajectory towards living out my humanity at the highest and not the lowest levels?

I’m sure that those peacekeeping rapists didn’t not set out on their journey through life to become rapists. They, like the rest of us, probably despised that behaviour. What changed? Why?

Were there smaller decisions they were making that led them slowly in that direction?

So many questions!

What do you think?

Tags: Humanity, Life, UN

Author Interview: Eric Bryant

Following on from yesterday’s introduction, here is the short interview I did with Eric Bryant recently.

* * * * *

Thanks Eric for agreeing to be interviewed for The Sixth Sense. Why don’t you start by telling us a bit more about who you are and what you do?

I live in Los Angeles with my wife Debbie and two children (Caleb and Trevi).  I serve at Mosaic, a diverse and creative community of people who believe we can change the world.  :)

Your latest book is called ‘Peppermint Filled Pinatas: Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love’ (published by Zondervan). Tell us a bit about what the book is about and why you wrote it.

I wrote a book to Christians about learning to embrace the people Christians “love to hate.”  In essence, my goal was to help people discover they can actually develop meaningful and beautiful friendships with people who look, act, and even believe differently.

Is there a specific group of people you’’d really like to see having a copy of this book in their hands? 

Anyone who wants to create a more diverse, missional, and loving world.  Tolerance and Racial Reconciliation aren’t good enough.  We need to create a reconciled and diverse community!

Why should anyone part with their hard earned cash and precious time to read your book? Sell it to us! 

You really want to help me sell this, huh?!  I have received lots of feedback from people saying they see the world differently after reading my book and laughed while reading it.  Erwin McManus, our lead pastor at Mosaic, wrote the Foreword in which he compared my book to a combination of “Saving Private Ryan” meets “Nacho Libre.”

What books/magazines/websites are you reading at the moment and, more specifically, what would you recommend?

Besides The Sixth Sense?  :)  I have really enjoyed Core Magazine there in the UK plus Outreach Magazine here in the U.S. in terms of magazines.  In terms of books, I am enjoying Dust Off Their Feet by Chris Seay plus The Black Swan and MicroTrends.  In terms of websites, we work hard to have a great deal of valuable free content up at www.mosaicalliance.com and www.ericbryant.org as well.

Thanks again for your time, Eric. We really appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions.

* * * * *

If you are based in the UK you can buy the book here. If you’re from the US you can get your hands on it here.

Any thoughts, comments, or questions?

Tags: Author Interviews, Authors, Books, Culture

Introducing Eric Bryant

One of the privileges I have had since Mosaic here in Sheffield connected to Mosaic in Los Angeles has been getting to know Eric Bryant. Eric serves as an elder, speaker, and navigator overseeing the leadership team at Mosaic in Los Angeles.

I once heard Erwin McManus (leader of Mosaic LA) describe Eric as being the guy who helps to ensure that Mosaic actually exists outside of his own head! If you want to get to know the ins and outs of how Mosaic LA functions, he’s definitely the guy to speak to.

He is a very gifted and talented guy who is a real inspiration. He is a great speaker and, on top of that, now a great author too. 

Speaking of which, I recently got to interview Eric and ask him a bit about his new(ish) book “Peppermint Filled Pinatas: Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love”. You can read that interview tomorrow, but for now I just wanted to give a few comments of my own on the book.

Perhaps a good way to express how good a book this is is to tell you about my wife, Rachel. Now, I know this may shock some of you, but Rachel hardly ever goes near Christian books. She struggles to read them, finds them very samey, and hardly ever starts let alone finishes one.

BUT, she picked up Eric’s book at my prompting and that was it. I barely saw her for the next couple of days. She not only started it but finished it. I was surprised and amazed and asked her why she liked it so much. Her response was, ‘I loved it’s wooiness’!

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment, both Rachel and Eric share a talent theme called ‘Woo’. It means they love meeting new people, working the crowd, etc. And for Rachel, she just loved sensing the ‘woo’ flowing through the book. Making friends, building relationships. That feels so real and natural to her compared to all the theoretical stuff that gets tossed around in so many Christian books.

From my own reading of Eric’s book, I just loved the emphasis on friendship and relationship. It is amazing how much easier it is to journey through differences of opinion when we choose the path of friendship and love. And from reading Eric’s book I was really encouraged to keep building relationships with all kinds of people - not people just like me!

So yeah, I give Eric’s book a BIG thumbs up. You should definitely go and pick up a copy if you haven’t already.

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the interview with Eric!

 

 

Tags: Author Interviews, Authors, Books, Eric Bryant

Reclaiming our Humanity: Greed vs. Generosity

Today we embark on a journey into our imagination. We set out with a simple yet bold ambition: to reclaim our humanity. We are all part of a unique species. Human beings. But what does it mean to be fully human? To be all that we can be. 

One thing is abundantly clear. We are not living out our full humanity. We don’t need to be rocket scientists to figure that out. So much darkness permeates our world. Greed. Hate. Anger. Selfishness. Lust. Apathy. Fear. The list is endless. One wonders even whether we have any idea, or even any way of knowing, what it means to be fully human again.

This five part series is geared to hopefully trigger us at least setting out on the journey. To try and reimagine what it means to be the kind of people who embody all that is good. People who live out and fulfil our potential.

Each week we will explore one theme and seek to embrace one new journey that may just help move us back towards reclaiming our humanity. This week it is greed vs. generosity.

So, to jump straight in, here’s what I think. If the trajectory of our lives is orientated towards greed then the type of person we are becoming is increasing less human. Inhumane. Un-human. But, if our lives are aligned with a pathway of generosity then we are on course to become someone who is human in the fullest sense.

Here we have a problem though. How many of us will put our hands straight up and say, ‘Yeah, I admit it, I’m greedy’? We look at others around us who are more greedy and use them to justify ourselves. This is not good!

If we cannot reach a point of owning the reality of where we are, then it is impossible to change course. It’s like looking at a map and saying we need to go ‘there’ without having any idea of where you are now. To change our trajectory we need to know where we are.

If we are going to move towards a life of generosity, we have to identify the areas of our lives that are on a trajectory towards greed. And then, and only then, can we realign with a pathway towards a life of generosity.

It is vital that we go practical with all this. Greed and generosity are terrible when only theorised about. We all would agree that generosity is the noble path to choose. But what does it actually mean to be generous? How do we practice a life of generosity? What does it look like?

And, on the counter-side, how to we own up and call some of the practices in our lives greedy? We need to be specific about this. We can’t base this on others who may be ‘worse’ than us. We need to ruthlessly root out each and every trace of greed in our lives. Name them, own them, reject them, and choose to embrace new, generous practices.

Questions to think about:

Why is greed bad? We need to think about this from a micro through to macro level. What harm does greed cause in our own lives? But, not only this, how does greed damage our world on a more global level?

What makes generosity something good? Again, we need to think about this through from a micro through to macro level. Is it just something ‘nice’ to do or is there more going on?

What are some practical choices we can make today that we can start to implement which will put us on a pathway of generosity? We should break this down into our time, talents, and resources. (Generosity is not all about money, though that is part if it.) Who could we be generous towards? 

What are the areas of our lives where we know we are maybe susceptible to greed? (Food. Money. Clothes. Technology. Gadgets…)

What do you think?

Tags: Life, Reclaiming our Humanity

Violence in South Africa

It’s been going on for a couple of weeks now but I’ve only just picked up on it. There have been a lot of violent attacks against foreigners living in South Africa. At least 56 people have been killed and upwards of 80,000 people displaced.

This really hit home as some of what has been going on has happened in the region we visited in January. We were hearing about the bad feeling - particularly towards Zimbabweans - back then. 

It is so sad to see these attacks against people from nations who did so much to support and provide refuge to South African’s during the era of apartheid. It does serve to highlight the huge problems that become almost impossible to contain when there is massive unemployment like there is in South Africa.

One thing this does make we want to do though is find even more ways to support our friends who are working out there, trying to make a difference with the young people. It is such an important work they are doing.

What do you think?

(Is it just me, or is there something very wrong about that photo?)

UPDATE:

New article on the BBC website about this story here.

 

Tags: South Africa, Unemployment, Violence

Boo hoo, not seen Indiana Jones yet!

The plan was to go and see the new Indiana Jones movie this afternoon but sadly Rachel has not been feeling very well so we didn’t get to go.

I really hope I’ll get to see it sometime this week though!

Who’s seen it so far? And what did you think? (No spoilers though please!!)

Comment here…

Tags: Indiana Jones, Movies

The Friday Poll: Indiana Jones

Tags: Indiana Jones, Movies, Polls, The Friday Poll

Nice long weekend ahead

I love bank holiday weekends. I think a four day week and a three day weekend would make for a great work-life balance.

This weekend some good friends of mine from university days will be coming over to Sheffield. They’re staying at the Hilton and we’ll be hanging out with them, their two year old boy, and six week old baby girl. Should be fun!

We’re going to go for a picnic out at Chatsworth house and gardens tomorrow. It is so beautiful out there and such a relaxing environment. (We’ll see if that’s still the case doing it with the two young-ens!)

What are you up to this weekend?

Tags: Chatsworth, Friends, Life

Reclaiming our Humanity - An Introduction

Beginning next week I am going to be embarking upon a five part series here at The Sixth Sense. The theme will be “Reclaiming our Humanity”. The plan will be to post once a week on a different topic within this theme and then - hopefully - have a conversation that will spill out throughout the rest of the week.

Here’s just a selection of some of the questions that I hope to explore through this series:

• What does it mean to be human?
• Is the trajectory of our lives moving us towards becoming more or less human(e)?
• How do we become ‘more human’?

To put my cards straight on the table, I come from a background and faith community whereby Jesus has been held up as the model human being. I have often been hugely frustrated by how segments of the church have represented Jesus, but I am still personally amazed, challenged, and inspired by the life Jesus lived, his passion for people, and the humanity he embodied.

So, for me, I cannot authentically speak about other spiritual leaders who others of you may hold up in the same way I might Jesus. But please don’t let that stop you bringing your perspective to the table. I enter into this journey both as a learner and a teacher.

Here’s what I think. If more and more people become more fully human as we were originally designed and wired to be, then the world will become a better place. And that’s good for us all. If just some of us end up grappling with what it means to be human, to reclaim our fullness as human beings, and start to look for ways to help others find their full humanity again, then imagine what a difference that could make.

Can I ask for your help with all this? I may be biased, but I think this would be a great conversation to invite friends, colleagues, neighbours, cyber-buddies, etc into. The more people who join in this conversation the better.

So what I’d love for you all to do is share this post with your friends who you think would enjoy or benefit from the conversation. Post this as a link on Facebook. Forward it to them via email. Do whatever you’re comfortable with. Spread the word!

Any thoughts, comments, or questions?

Tags: Jesus Christ, Life, Reclaiming our Humanity

Interesting Links

• Automatic cars ’slash journey times’
• In US election, every (written) word counts
• 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers
• The card that lets you choose death

Tags: Interesting Links, Random Sites I Visit