January Focus

The Next Wave

It is impossible to overstate the devastation caused by the recent tsunami.

At 10:00 a.m., on the day after Christmas, an earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale and centered in the Indian Ocean near the Indonesian Island of Sumatra sent waves racing across the water at the speed of an F-16 fighter jet and exploded into coastal communities from Indonesia to the Horn of Africa. Over 100,000 people lost their lives. Millions lost their livelihoods.

It is unlikely the world will see again a catastrophe of such magnitude in our lifetime. This, at least, is our hope.

The catastrophic quality of a natural event is a function of its linkage to the human experience. A tsunami that washes up on the shores of a deserted island is of little interest except to geo-physicists. Because it impacts human life, also means that it takes place within a certain moment in human history. This tsunami has a social context.

The disaster comes at a time when the global community is already experiencing shock wave after shock wave of change that is causing a variety of dislocations and devastations of another kind.

The new global economy is changing lives and livelihoods on every continent, transforming cultures that have endured for hundreds, and in some cases thousands of years.

Farmers in Central America struggle to keep up with the growing demand for low cost, high quality produce. Lacking the economic means to invest in the technology pioneered by agri-business producers elsewhere, many are abandoning the land and joining the growing mass of the urban poor.

Relatively cheap transportation systems have created a (potential) network of contagion that has the capacity to spread disease across the globe. Africa is already the tragic victim of the 21st century version of the plague, HIV/AIDS.

China is quickly coming on line in the new global economy and will soon become the world's largest consumer of oil, placing additional demand on an already dwindling supply placing new pressure on oil-dependant economies.

Practitioners of Wahhabism, a radical Arabic neo-colonialist movement have found in terrorism a means to challenge the cultural domination of the global North. Their aim seems to be to restore the Arabic empire of medieval times. Its chief exponent, Osama Bin Laden, has successfully determined the international policy of the largest economic and military power in the world.

And then tsunami. In a moment an unnatural wave literally sweeps away lives across the globe. This tragedy will be measured in loss of life, cost of humanitarian aid, and the price to rebuild social and economic infrastructure. But one dimension will be difficult to measure. How will this event shape the nature of the global community moving forward?

Already Pakistan has offered aid to its arch-rival and nuclear armed nemesis India. Indonesian rebels have called a "ceasefire" in order to provide support to restore their neighbors lives. The United States government is forming a new kind of coalition of the willing, not a coalition to wage war, but a coalition to provide aid to suffering people.

On the day after Christmas a killer wave destroyed the lives of millions. Our question is this: What will the next wave bring? Will it be, can it be wave after wave of grace as people reach out across the globe in recognition of our shared humanity?

The epicenter of the next wave, will be the human heart transformed by grace.

Monthly Focus Archive

2006:

Easter Focus: New Covenant
Lenten Focus: A Covenantal Response to Poverty
February Focus: Moving Forward

2005:

December Focus: Longing
November Focus: The Gift of Years
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Foundations
Summer Focus: The Book of Acts
Easter Focus: Tapestry
Lenten Focus: Rule of Life
January Focus: The Next Wave

2004:

December Focus: Surprising Grace
November Focus: Free Indeed
October Focus: Money Madness
September Focus: The Outrageous Promise
Summer Focus: Into the Fullness
June Focus: Thick Faith
Easter Focus: All Things New
Lent Focus: A Hungry World
February Focus: Commitment
January Focus: Unity

2003:

December Focus: Hope
November Focus: Worship
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Seasons of Faith
Summer Focus: The Gospel of John
May Focus: Faith
April Focus: Resurrection
March Focus: Truth
February Focus: Covenant Groups
January Focus: Sabbath

2002:

December Focus: Shut Up and Sing
November Focus: Spiritual Gifts
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Intentional Faith