Up Northigan (previously known as rocky mtn Hi!): us & them?

Back in Holland one of my Young Life guys pretty regularly asked me a big question—and he had a reason for it too. In the rare moments that he and I found ourselves in a serious place he would question (I’m sure you can guess it), “Mad Mike, why do bad things happen to good people?”

I'm sure youth pastors around the world can relate to the helpless feeling I'd get in my gut as he'd look at me like I knew the answer.

And like any good Christian leader, I'd answer him by beating around the bush. I'd say, "Well Jay, what exactly is a good person to you?" And I'd draw him this little graph (I know that I often tell some of you guys that I get frustrated when people try to make the Gospel into a science... like drawing graphs... but give me a break I was flustered).

My theory was that it's hard to do anything but call all humans 'bad' when put on a bar graph up against God's goodness. God's infinite goodness sets off the scale so much that it almost looks as if Mama T, Hitler, and I are all on the same 'goodness' level. Now Jay was okay with my graph but the more I think about it the more I realize that he had every right to argue, "If God is that good how could anything bad happen at all?"

Here at the Dale House it's tempting to draw a big bold line between what is good and what is bad... I'm ashamed to admit that it's even tempting to generalize who is good and who is bad. The other day, my primary even said that he knows he can be good and has been good, but it gets boring. Sometimes it's more fun to just be bad. You all know what I mean.

On Thursday, the director of the house (George) read this quote from N.T. Wright...

'The line between justice and injustice, between things being right and things not being right, can't be drawn between "us" and "them." It runs right down through the middle of each one of us.'

It runs right down the middle of each one of us. Me and my primary. Hitler and Mother Teresa. This idea of 'us and them' amongst Christians is fogging up the world's picture of God's all encompassing love. Us and them-- Us "the Christians" and them "the Muslims." Or us "the Americans" and them "the illegal immigrants." In fact, I'm inclined to believe, based on what I've read in the gospels, that Jesus might befriend the illegal immigrant far before introducing himself to me. ... maybe I'm 'them'...

Annie and I just got back from a bike trip with the staff at the Dale House. We biked 80 miles in two days and we got to hear everyone's beautiful life stories. It was apparent that there is no 'us and them' and we all know and have known both good and bad. We have all done both good and bad. The vulnerability on the trip really strengthened the community amongst old and new staff.

Here are some pics from that trip and some pics from Grey's Peak and Torrey's Peak (Annie and I went on a hike last weekend).

Here's us matching kind of unintentionally...we biked down a pass into Brekenridge and a town called Frisco stayed the night there then rode up and down Vail Pass...80 miles in two days!