Pedro Claver invested relationally in the lives of slaves, and as a result Christianity grew well with that group of people. Eventually, new Christian slaves grew in their faith and they began to care for others on their own. Claver knew what many good leaders know... that you cannot do everything on your own. You must give up control. You must disciple others, empower others, and then release them to lead. This is multiplication. Jesus set the ulitmate example of multiplication for us. He invested intimately into a small group of people, who in turn went out and changed the world.
Claver was rejected by the world and mainstream Christian society. However, he had a good understanding of God's economy where the last shall be first and the first shall be last. In his life and ministry, he completely flipped the heirarchy of the world upside down by serving the slaves first, then the poor, then children, and then others after that. How many Christians in America today are racing to be first? Or, how many American Christians are willing to not just have a head knowledge about God's economy but actually flip their lives upside down and live as if the poor and needy of society were actually the most important investment they could make with their time and effort? Some call this lifestyle downward mobility.
Just try going against the grain and live as though all of the values of individual gain and upward mobility were flipped around. The world will scream at you to get back in line! In fact, most comfortable American cultural Christians will scream at you to get back in line! But, the big secret is that true life and communion and intimacy with God can be found in downward mobility. That was the profound thing about Jesus Christ. He was unrecognized by the powerful in the world and the mainstream religous people in his day. He modeled the ultimate downward mobility for us, dying a humiliating and excruciating death on the cross... and prior to his death he spent his time with people who the world and mainstream religous people had rejected. If we realize that we are off track in American Christianity today (which I believe is true and for which I developed a case in my prevous blog post), then we need to humble ourselves and learn from the likes of Pedro Claver. We must become downwardly mobile. It is OK to be rejected. What better example do we have than Jesus?
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