Wisdom and Age

When my seventy-seven year old mother met with an accident recently and fractured her hip, during one of her "dark nights of the soul", she expressed the view that people like her had already lived out their productive lives and had nothing more to contribute to society. She recalled that in the olden days, people would live a much shorter life span and did not usually have to contend with the specter of degenerative diseases that would render them increasingly frail and dependant on others. She also mentioned that once one got to that point, it was a frightening situation because while some people were lucky to be well taken care of, many others were treated callously as burdens to feed.

Since then I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be productive. If my mother in her late seventies worries about being productive, I need to worry too. Often as I buy and read business magazines at airports and railway stations, I note that one of the main features of today's knowledge based economy is that people who are needed are often those who are young and who bring with them the latest technologies and domain knowledge that are needed today. It is of course another matter that today's young people become tomorrow's middle aged and today's emerging platform is tomorrow's obsolesce. I noted though that in the manufacturing industry, experience was valued above youth perhaps because technology does not evolve as rapidly there as else where. The trick is in reinventing ourselves in every age, every decade, so that we remain forever productive.

But how to define productivity? Is it all about moving our hands and feet and being seen to be visibly agile and mobile? I think that is how youth defines it - speed is every thing and you ought always to be visible as doing some thing. Being productive is being active; no being productive is being pro active, being there before any one else has got there. Of course these attributes are important- doing the right thing at the right time at the right pace is the sina qua non of being strategic.

There is a trait, a quality that we use every day of our lives but it is one that is forever hiding itself in the shadows. It is called wisdom. Wisdom is never a part of the curriculum of any management school or institution but can only be learnt on the job as one goes through life in its many shades. And the longer one lives, the longer one in engaged with the world, the sharper its nuances as it is expressed out and lived out in life's diverse situations.

Some times, I feel that we haven't quite learnt to value and evaluate the weight of experience, wisdom and the value addition that it provides. And so our propensity often to sniff at the gifts they bring and the insights they offer as the obsolete thinking of outdated senile minds. Because their understanding and practice is often not expressed in the vocabulary and idiom of the here and now jargon, we often look upon their opinion and insight with a dismissive air.

In the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, old age is a blessing. To die “full of years” is the fondest wish of biblical characters. Zechariah 8:4-5 shares a vision of the new kingdom of God in which those of old age sit on the streets of the New Jerusalem. They carry canes, but the youthful children play around them. The elderly are respected members of this new society. Interestingly, in such prophetic passages the benefits of old age are never “explained;” they are “assumed.” The prophets share other such concerns for the elderly. Isaiah 46:4 reads, “To your old age I am the one who will look after you; to gray hair, I will carry you, I myself have created you and will lift you up; I myself will carry you and deliver you.

The most venerated role posited to the elderly can be found in the book of Proverbs. Old age and wisdom are synonymous. Proverbs 22:17-24:22 contains a vast collection of sayings that instruct the young to obey their elders and to always deal wisely with the elderly. Negatively the same assertion is made in Proverbs 30:17, where the young are scolded for their foolishness if they do not “heed the education of the elderly.

Similarly through out the Book of Proverbs we find that being wise is not about having knowledge per se but rather about an individual's response to that knowledge. And in his opening chapter Solomon tells us what a fitting response looks like: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline" (1:7). Wisdom is thus rooted in relationship; or, to turn a contemporary aphorism on its head, "It's not about what you know; it's about who you know." To be wise is first and foremost to surrender in awe before the God of the universe, our Creator and Redeemer. Furthermore, wisdom is personified—wisdom actually speaks—in Proverbs. Wisdom declares, "I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech" (8:12, 13). Wisdom continues, "I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me" (v. 17).

Wisdom and its importance cannot be ever weighed on a scale. Its power is subtle and its influence nuanced. It cannot easily be captured on balance sheets, nor can its astuteness be easily encashed as dividends. Yet this is the one commodity that our senior citizens have in abundance and on tap and yet a resource we rarely remember to tap as we busy ourselves paying obeisance at the altar of youth. The spring fountains of youth are indeed enthralling but can they match the depth of eyes and ears that having seen off spring have witnessed, summer, autumn and now winter?

Advocating for Dalit Christians

The term 'Dalit' has come to mean things or persons who are cut, split, broken or torn asunder, scattered or crushed and destroyed. By coincidence, there is in Hebrew a root 'dal' meaning low, weak, poor. In the Bible, different forms of this term have been used to describe people who have been reduced to nothingness or helplessness. However, the present usage of the term Dalit goes back to the nineteenth century, when a Marathi social reformer and revolutionary, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule (1826-1890), used it to describe the outcastes and untouchables as the oppressed and the broken victims of our caste-ridden society. Dalit communities are those who are oppressed by the caste system in India. They account for about 16% of the total population; they are discriminated against for being polluting or untouchable and are relegated to performing occupations such as leather tanning, scavenging, weaving, and fishing, professions that are considered defiling and polluting and are largely understood to have their origins in the Chaturvarna system of Indian social classification sanctioned by the Hindu law giver Manu. However, Dalits are outside the pale of the caste system and its defined social and occupational hierarchy.

Among 30 million Christians, at least twenty millions are considered to be Dalits. Most of them live in extreme poverty and desperation. A survey undertaken by Jesuits in Tamil Nadu revealed that 79.6% of the Dalit Christians are landless, that their illiteracy rate is 65%, and that their average annual income is no more than 25 dollars. The Christian community in India also is too are divided into a number of castes with the previously Brahmin castes at the top and untouchables at the bottom. Though Christianity also does not recognize caste system, there are upper and lower caste among Christians. In Goa, for example, there are upper caste Catholic Brahmins who do not marry Christians belonging to the lower castes. In many churches, the low caste Christians have to sit apart from the high caste Christians. In Andhra Pradesh, there are Christian Dalit, Christian Malas, Christian Reddys, Christian Kammas, etc. In Tamil Nadu, converts to Christianity form Scheduled Castes - Latin Catholics, Christian Shanars, and Christian Gramani are in the list of Scheduled Castes. Such instances are many and vary from region to region.

Logically, the term ‘Dalit Christians’ is self-contradictory. How can a person be a ‘Dalit’ when he is a Christian; for Christianity does not recognize the caste system which is an evil prevalent only in the Hindu society? When a person gets converted, he is no longer a Hindu and thus does not fall into any category of the caste hierarchy. But unfortunately, in India we do have this category of people who got converted to Christianity in the vain hope of leading a respectable life. Conversion to Christianity has only added to the misery of the Dalits. Many Dalit Christian leaders refer to the twice-alienated situation of the Dalit Christians in India, namely, discrimination within the Church and discrimination by the State as they are denied Scheduled Caste status in the Constitution, and the related privileges which come with that status.
This is because the external forms of untouchability and their practice still exist among Christians, within the Church, in the graveyard, in the festivals, in marriage alliances, etc. The most unfortunate thing is that the caste Christians, practicing these inhuman acts are often supported by their own caste-priests and nuns, who even encourage them to attack Dalit Christians. That is the main reason for caste-practice continuing in the Church.

The same rules of Hindu caste system govern them, and they are known by their caste names --- Christian Nayars, Christian Paraya etc. Hardly any lower castes are allowed to be appointed as priest. Untouchables have separate graveyards and churches. So entrenched is the system that if a Christian upper caste cannot find a suitable caste Christian to marry, then a Hindu of the same caste will be selected rather than another Christian of lower caste.

The Dalits who converted to Christianity possibly gained a new sense of self-respect, but the gains were wiped out by the fact that upper caste Christians from whose ranks their religious superiors come still treated them as untouchables. There have been recorded instances of priests refusing to enter the houses of their Dalit congregation; the mission schools have separate arrangements for Dalits and other castes. In some Protestant churches, there were separate cups for the Dalits at the Eucharistic celebration. In the Catholic churches, there were separate communion rails, nor did their relationship with Hindu castes change in any way. So, many Dalit Christians have either started new churches themselves or reconverted back to Hinduism.

Little did they know that conversion to Christianity would not redeem them from social discrimination and untouchability, because though Jesus never advocated the caste system, Christianity in India was not free from the caste bias. Christian outfits which criticized Hinduism for its caste system, practiced discrimination based on castes in their Churches. In spite of the fact that around 75% of the Christians are ‘Dalits’ who got converted to Christianity to lose their caste or ‘outcaste’ tag, Dalit Christians within the Church were discriminated against and were denied powers within the ecclesiastical structure.

Today, the Dalit movement is a growing movement both within and outside the church, working for the liberation of Dalits from caste oppression — stigma, discrimination — political, economic, social, and religious. Dalit theology is an emerging discipline that is taking shape against much resistance both from both the dominant groups and from some Dalits themselves, who are still conscious of their status as Dalits and the social ramifications of embracing their Dalit identity. The situation Christian Dalits face is even more oppressive, as the general miserable living conditions characterizing the situation of Dalits are compounded by the denial of affirmative action by the state. Those who become Christians today usually cannot hope for material rewards.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that church development co-operation does not distinguish between Christians and non-Christians. Instead Christians must rather expect to be penalized; they lose their entitlement to state support in the form of allowances for school fees, grants, the right to jobs in public service etc. Actually this situation has recently led to quite a few Dalit Christians giving up their Christian faith because of their miserable living conditions, hoping to improve them through state support. On top of this enormous pressure is being exerted on Christians by Hindu groups and massive re-conversion campaigns waged among Dalits and Adivasis, - „indigenous peoples", as Indian tribal people nowadays call themselves. These campaigns often do not differ at all from „forced conversions" and otherwise bear all the hallmarks of what Christian mission is accused of.

The truth behind the debate becomes even more evident if one bears in mind that the conversions of those sections of the population who are discriminated against and marginalized in many respects is not a phenomenon exclusive to Christian mission. Attention must be drawn, above all, to the attitude of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who - an „Untouchable" himself - rose to the position of a spokesman for the „Untouchables" in the thirties and later as an architect of the Indian Constitution and India’s first Minister of Justice did a lot to promote the Dalits. Unlike Gandhi, who tried to improve the living conditions of the Harijans mainly by appealing to the higher caste Hindus and quite often showed a paternalistic attitude towards the Harijans, Ambedkar held the view that the Dalits must speak for and fight to achieve justice for themselves. For him the issue of „Untouchability" was inextricably linked with Hinduism itself, which he rejected as his religious home as early as 1936. As the caste system and „Untouchability" were connected with Hinduism for him and he saw no possibility of achieving justice within the Hinduistic system, he converted to Buddhism in 1956 in a dramatic act along with hundreds of thousands of his followers. Conversion had thus become a form of social and political protest.

Because the state policy of affirmative action has been unable to overcome discrimination against Dalits to the present day, the living conditions of many of them are now worse than they used to be, and above all because their stigmatization as „Untouchables" persists, the ideas of Ambedkar have received renewed attention over the past two decades and have become the ideological ferment of a broad social movement for the emancipation of Dalits and the cultural self-assertion of the Adivasis, the Indian indigenous people. The fact that the Church today - not least of all due to Dalit theology which is aimed at liberating the Dalits - is part of this social movement is what is really behind the controversies over conversions. It challenges the Indian social system, which insists on privileges based on caste hierarchies, and champions another model of society. Even as agitations go on against the prevailing attitude of the government towards the Dalit Christians it is important to note that it is not as though the problems of Dalit Christians have not received attention from the government. Several commissions appointed by the government have referred to the disabilities Dalits suffered in Christian society.

Kaka Kalelkar, chairman of the Backward Classes Commission of 1955, said, “We discovered with deep pain and sorrow that untouchability did obtain in the extreme south among Indian Christians, and Indian Christians were prepared in many places to assert that they were still guided by caste, not only in the matter of untouchability, but in social hierarchy of high and low. While the Harijans among the Hindus, classified as scheduled castes, stand a fair chance of bettering their condition under the Indian government’s reservation policy, their Christian counterparts stand twice discriminated.”

Two more reports that came a decade later found that the status of Dalits in the Christian society remained the same as it was in 1955 when the Kalelkar Commission was appointed. First, the Chidambaram Committee report of 1975 said, “Casteism is practiced widely among the members of the Christian fold as judged by the characteristic of the caste system and going by the economic status of the Harijan Christians. It is evident that they are poverty-stricken lot.” The infamous Mandal Commission report conceded the reality of caste among Indian Christians as in any other community. The commission cited the example of the Christian community in Kerala, which, according to its report, is not only divided into various denominations on the basis of beliefs and rituals but also into various ethnic groups on the basis of their caste background.

The emerging Dalit and liberation theologies are today propelling significant sections within the Indian Church towards the path of radical social activism by challenging structures of oppression—religious, cultural, economic and political. Contemporary Dalit and liberation theologians see Jesus himself as a revolutionary, a central concern of whose mission was to oppose the hegemony of the ruling establishment and to crusade for a radically new social order. This new commitment to a socially engaged, radical Christianity is today inspiring many Christian priests, more so Catholics than Protestants, to engage themselves in the struggles of the poor, particularly the Dalits and the tribals.

Even as we lobby for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for our Dalit brethren, there is a lot of house cleaning that needs to be done in the church itself.
A good question to ponder is how well represented are the Dalits in the leadership of the churches and other Christian institutions. Even as we vociferously argue for reservations, there is a need to evaluate the institutionalized caste system amidst our own establishments. There is also the fact that apart from overt instances of separate pews, graveyards and such external manifestations, often there exists a much more subtle, overt separation – in terms of insulting and patronizing attitudes. We should be asking that as even as we point fingers at the state, are we within the church also stained with the same blood of violating the fundamental rights of the Dalit Christians, not just as citizens of secular India but also as citizens of the Kingdom of God, where there is no Jew and no Greek, no free and no slave. The apostle Paul said “a good while ago, God chose among us many who heard the gospel and believed. God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the Dalits who came to the Christian fold?

The test of adequacy of service or of a servant leader is this: Do those who are served grow as persons, become wiser, just, and more likely themselves to become servants? Jesus’ disciples became better people in every conceivable way after they met him and committed themselves as servants for the transformation of the world. The effectiveness of churches’ programmes of liberation and justice should be assessed on the basis of resultant transformation among the Dalits. The humiliation and crucifixion of Jesus was a degrading and cruel event. Those who were crucified were labeled as God-forsaken or cursed by God. But God "exalted" Jesus, gave him the name above all names, Lord, and made every knee to bend, in acknowledgment of his lordship and acceptance of the new norms of the new community. Hope was given the oppressed that victory would follow humiliation and God’s glory would ultimately prevail and transform the world

The lure and oppressive bid for power, which ultimately oppression is all about leads us to deal with sin in our lives. We have sinned against God by making our human distinctions. It’s time for us to repent and to confess our sin to the one, true and living God who revealed Himself in creation to all and in a very special way through His Word, the Bible and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Every human being is important as God gave His Son, out of love, for man. The Bible says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

Because Jesus emptied himself, God has exalted him (Phil. 2:9), made him sit at the right hand of God the Father. The ascended Lord is not resting but is involved in a struggle to put down all his enemies under his foot. The exalted Lord inspires us in our struggle. Christians are not to compromise with evils that alienate and exclude others, such as casteism, racism, sexism, etc. It will be a poor state of affairs if our witness through our lives and relationships is in no way better than the witnesses given by those who practice and perpetrate these demonic structures and cultures.

So to stress again, Christianity does not preach inequality in any form and caste distinctions are anathema to the Bible and its teachings. “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to call upon Him (Romans 10: 12).” If you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law breakers (Jas 2:9). Paul clearly taught that differential treatment against those of a different economic or social background should be avoided at all costs in our churches. Instead, he tells us in Romans 12:3,” Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.” Every one of us has been bought with grace through the shed blood of Christ. Partiality in the church indicates the loss of saving grace. God does not want us to base our judgment on the criteria of the world.

How can we forget that the word of God urges us to love others by accepting them as they are and seeing them as individuals for whom Christ gave His life? We are not to judge others or look down on them. Preferring the rich to the poor, or the higher caste to the lower caste, is a terrible sin, for Christ became poor that we might be rich in Him. When a former low caste person comes into the Christian congregation, he is to be received in love and shown just as much grace as a former high caste person. The man of the world may look on outward appearance and the circumstances of our birth, but God sees the heart and we should do the same. By refusing to receive those who in our imagination are beneath us because of their ancestry, we are dishonoring the Lord and the ones who He loves.

A Christian’s identity is in Christ – not in his past. All of us are complete in Christ. Consequently , caste can have no place in the church of god. The name of our loving , creator God and Lord is blasphemed when we continue with our caste prejudices within the church. How He must grieve when he sees set aside His commandment to love and think of us more highly than we ought to, and follow the rest of society in dehumanizing those whom He has created.
We live in a time when the world has recognized the Biblical principle that all human beings are created equal and must be treated with respect. This principle has even been incorporated into our laws and is consequently a right capable of being protected by the force of law. When we break the law, as we do when we practice discrimination against former Dalits, we invite legal action and incur God’s wrath. Our churches should learn from history and the trends of society and stop perpetuating a shameful legacy.

It is unfortunate that casteisn has crept into Indian Christianity and thrived. This belies the gospel. It should have no place in churches. The “Dalit” meaning broken, people of our country have been subjected to cruelty and disrespect for centuries. Our task as the church should be to rub salve and not salt , into the many lives, wounded by the cruelties of caste that have come to Christ. We must help them forget their past as “Dalits”. We need to remember and help each other to remember who we all, without exception are in Christ. Even as we stand shoulder to shoulder with our Dalit brothers and sisters in their fight for their legal rights, our ultimate aim should be to take the phrase ”Dalit Christians”, out of the nation’s political vocabulary. In god’s kingdom, we are all his children. We should endeavor to make this equality a mark of the church as well. May we be known for our love, as Jesus desired and not for upholding time worn prejudices.

Thus far we have not taken seriously the words and example of our Lord Jesus Christ who, when he came to earth and walked the villages, the Bible says: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36). Where is our compassion? Let us follow the model and the mandate of Jesus who described his Spirit-anointing for mission with the words:” “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19). Are the Dalits not the poor, the prisoners and the oppressed of our day? The very term: “Dalits, means oppressed.” Why have we waited so long? Now is the time, now is the opportunity. Let us come together as one to ask the God of the universe to free the oppressed. Is this not what Jesus, our Master, would do? Christian mission -- however it is understood and whatever form it may take -- must not adopt the ideology of the colonialists, as the Hindu nationalists have done. It will be most true to its Lord by proclaiming the gospel confidently, but in a way that respects the human right to be religiously different

Living in the Wilderness

When the Bible first introduces David, he is a shepherd boy-young, unremarkable, unknown. He is called from the fields, as an afterthought it seems, and anointed for kingship. It isn't long before David's name is on the lips of every young woman in Israel and David's deeds are immortalized in song. He is the hero who defeated Goliath. Still a young man, David rises to high rank in the army and marries the King's daughter. Accounts of his exploits in battle against Israel's enemies circulate throughout the nation, each new tale of his bravery and skilfulness in battle exceeding the last. "Then David fled…" That's how chapter 20 begins. "Then David fled…" David's star plummets even faster than it rose. One day every pundit in Israel anticipates David being named King Saul's next chief of staff. The next day David is on the run-heading for the wilderness to escape King Saul's murderous wrath. For David, the next 8 or 10 years are wilderness years. Wilderness, in the Bible, is not about pleasant walks across meadows of wildflowers, with the sunshine pouring down, birds chirping, and bunnies hopping. Wilderness, in the Bible, is about crisis. Wilderness, in the Bible, is about stepping into the unknown, the future unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Wilderness, in the Bible, is about leaving behind the security of home and stepping into danger. Wilderness isn't always exactly the same. Frequently, wilderness is a place of darkness and temptation. Wilderness involves disconnection, disorientation, discomfort, disillusionment, disquiet, disappointment, distress. Wilderness is a place to get to know God deeper than ever before-because in the wilderness, we really need God. Wilderness is where there is a really possibility of despair. Wilderness is where hope is born-because where there is no risk of despair, there is no deep need for hope. Wilderness is where transformation happens. Incremental growth-that can happen when the waters are smooth. But transformation-real transformation that turns our lives upside down and sends us off in a new direction with new faith and new hope and new purpose; transformation that is about dying to self and being raised to new life-that happens when the waters are choppy. Most of us resist being changed; we only let it happen when we have to. Wilderness is where God does some of his best work. Ten chapters of 1 Samuel, at least, are devoted to David's wilderness years. David enters the wilderness a young man on the run. David comes out the other side a man poised to lead the chosen people of God. Wilderness is where you learn that you can't run so fast that God can't find you. Wilderness is where you learn that you can't fall so far that God can't catch you.

Everybody's wilderness experience is different. The way God is at work is different. There is no uniform pattern. Nevertheless, David's story is informative. There are four wilderness growing edges from David's story that we can mention. 1) David learned some important lessons about himself. 2) David learned something about choosing friends. 3) David learned a little something about grace…and about extending grace. 4) David was schooled in the language of lament (or prayer of honest complaint). Wilderness can be a place to learn what we most need to learn about ourselves. For lots of people, that means learning that they are far more resilient and capable than they thought they were. For David, that meant learning that he wasn't quite as perfect as his recent successes might have tempted him to believe. In 1 Samuel 21. David has fled from Saul, and this time there is no going back. He left in a hurry. He had no time to pack, so he has no supplies with him. He doesn't even have a weapon with him. He makes up a story to maintain appearances. "I'm on the King's business," David tells Ahimelech. "I'm on a secret mission, which makes sense since I am so well-thought of by the King. And I'm not alone. My men are waiting just beyond the next hill. Why am I here seeking help? Well, you see, it's just that the secret mission is so urgent that we left without supplies. I even forgot my weapon. But that's just because the mission is so important. It has nothing to do with me being frightened or in trouble or anything.

How many here can identify with David's desire to keep up appearances- -even though his world is falling apart and he needs help? After leaving Ahimelech, David runs straight to the Philistines-the Philistines!!-looking for help. Achish is a Philistine king. David, desperate for someplace to hide from Saul, unwilling to reveal his desperation to his friends, looks for help among those who have sought his destruction. How many here can identify with David here? Why is it that when our world begins to crumble it can be so tempting to go looking for help from those who, in better times, we knew would only lead us to destruction? David, who was so careful to protect his dignity among his friends, resorts to drooling into his beard in front of his enemies. He just manages to convince the Philistine king that he is insane, so that he escapes with his life. David has one place left to go. He flees into the wilderness and hides in a cave. Both of these incidents occur at the beginning of David's wilderness years. There is another incident, later, that has an even more humbling effect on David.

While residing for awhile in the Desert of Moan, David and his men informally provided protection for the employees of a certain wealthy man named Nabal. The keepers of this man's sheep and goats spent a whole season out in the desert without fear of robbers because of David's protection. At the end of the season, David concluded that he and his men were due some compensation for their generous help, but Nabal didn't know David and had no intention of sharing with David. David fell into a rage at this snub. On impulse, he rallied his men and began to march toward Nabal's home. David had every intention of slaughtering the wealthy man and his entire household. Nabal was saved by some quick thinking by his wife, Abigail, who threw together a gift package and met David on the way. Abigail saved Nabal's life. She also saved David. David was saved from acting in the same type of impulsive murderous rage that motivated Saul. David was saved from letting a momentary lust for revenge ruin destroy his reputation for integrity and honour.

David was saved from dragging his anointing to be the next king of Israel through the mud. In the wilderness, David learned a lot about his own weaknesses, and David was humbled. Wilderness can be a place to learn what we most need to learn about ourselves. For lots of people, that means learning that they are far more resilient and capable than they thought they were. For David, that meant learning that he wasn't quite as perfect as his early successes might have tempted him to believe. Common wisdom suggests that wilderness is a good place to learn who your friends really are. Wilderness is also a good place to learn something about choosing friends. Back in the early days, after David left Ahimelech wondering what was really going on, and after David escaped from the Philistines with his life intact (though not his dignity), David fled into the wilderness-leaving behind his friends and his enemies. The new friends that David found in the wilderness weren't all that great to look at. They used rough language. They carried all they owned on their backs. Some were in distress. Some were in debt. Some were discontented. They were not the type of people that a famous warrior from the king's own court would be seen with. But they knew something about wilderness. They met David in the wilderness, and they befriended him there. Wilderness has a way, sometimes, of exposing surface judgments of people for what they are-surface judgments. Wilderness has a way, sometimes, of bringing us into relationship with people we never associated with before.

If we can, by God's grace, navigate the currents that steer us towards people who will lead to destruction, we just might learn something new about the sorts of people who will walk with us through the wilderness and support us along the way. In the wilderness, David learned a little bit about choosing friends. Another time, David and his men and their families live in a town called Ziklag. It is in Philistine territory, but it is the home base of David and his men. A time comes when David and his men march out of Ziklag, intending to go off to battle. Something comes up, however, and they are diverted from the battle they intended to participate in. They head home to Ziklag early. When they get to Ziklag, they find that tragedy and terror have struck while they were away. Raiders came into Ziklag and carried off all the plunder they could carry. Worse than that, they carried off all the women and children-all the families-of David and his men. In the midst of mourning and recrimination, David rallies his men. Within a short time of arriving home, they are back on the march, determined to find the raiders and rescue their families. It turns out that this forced march-on top of their recent long hike out and back-is too much for some of the men.

At a certain point, about a third of the men are left behind with the supplies, and the rest of the men continue the chase. Eventually, David and his men catch up with the raiders. They defeat them. They rescue their wives and children. They retrieve the things that had been stolen from them. And they retrieve a whole lot more. They head back to Ziklag, flushed with victory and overflowing with plunder of their own. On the way back, they meet up again with the men who had stayed behind. Some of the men who had gone the whole way argue that the plunder should not be shared with those who stayed behind. David has another idea. "All will share alike" whether they stayed with the supplies or went all the way. Somewhere in the wilderness, David learned about grace…and extending grace to others. Last, but not least, in the wilderness, David was schooled the language of lament.

Lament is the art of prayerful complaint. Lament is crying out to God with total honesty about the reality of wilderness…about the crisis of wilderness…about the unpredictability and uncontrollability of wilderness…about the danger of wilderness. Lament is the art of prayerful complaint. In the wilderness, David was schooled in the language of lament. In the wilderness, David experienced disconnection, disorientation, discomfort, disillusionment, disquiet, disappointment, distress. In the wilderness, David encountered the real possibility of despair. David brought it all before God. It is generally understood that Psalm 57 is associated with David's flight from Saul.Even a quick scan of the Psalms of David makes clear that David was not hesitant to bring every bit of the crisis of wilderness to God with honest words and honest emotion. One of the reasons, David was so good at writing the language of praise was that he knew the language of lament. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our wilderness experiences, because we know that wilderness trekking produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given to us.