Humility & Muddy Boots

A couple years ago, I drove with a couple friends to Winnipeg to attend an information and movie night about issues that are affecting east and central Africa as a result of the terror and destruction carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army. Two of us were Canadian, one was from Ghana, and one was from Rwanda.

I don't recall the entire conversation - it wandered from one subject to another with ease and comfort, as it is with friends who get along well and share a few common interests. We talked about my childhood experience of Zaire, and touched on my friend's experience of Rwanda. However, the discussion became tense when my Ghanan friend - insisting that his homeland is peaceful, stable and uncorrupted by many of the issues that have affected post-colonial Africa - said, "No... in Ghana we are civilized. We don't act like those savages." My Rwandese friend became suddenly still and quiet.

What went wrong? Although what was said was certainly insensitive and politically incorrect, the issue goes much deeper. You see, deep inside my Canadian heart there is the same civilized pride ("In my country, people don't use machetes to dismember each other" - although the residential school system could fairly be called a cultural genocide of epic proportions); I guess I was just lucky that I wasn't the one who took my foot and shoved it halfway down my throat.

Building bridges - Tea with our Rwandese friends.

The problem is that we do not understand the problem of evil. Until it stares us in the face, we hesitate to acknowledge it; and then, once evil is staring us down, we cry out to God in confusion, asking "Where were you, God?" as if human evil were God's responsibility. I won't begin here to flesh out a theology of evil (for that, please see N.T. Wright's Evil and the Justice of God - a good read, and in fairly accessible language as well).

Although God's redemptive mission certainly contains the final solution for evil, human beings are still accountable and responsible for their choices.  However, "the line between good and evil is never simply between 'us' and 'them.' The line between good and evil runs through each one of us" (emphasis added; Wright, 2006, p. 38). Every member of humankind is made in the image of God, and yet every member of humankind is also tainted, tracking evil through God's world - like muddy shoes across pristine carpet. However, in the irony that so often characterizes God's kingdom, God then uses these same messed up, muddy footed people on His mission of redemption. He uses me! He uses my Rwandese friends. He uses the Church - which is chock-full of muddy-footed people. Isn't that amazing?

Redemption is messy business. It just doesn't seem fair! Shouldn't there be a clearer line between the good guys and the bad guys? But while it freaks me out a little bit, I think it delights God. "After all," He reminds us, "there's only one person without mud on his boots" (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

When I first look down to see my own muddy feet, it makes sense to embrace as equals others who have mud on their boots.