(e)mergent Voyageurs

I was a Prince of Egypt. Born into the comfortable privilege of a rural, middle-class, Evangelical community. I was provided with a wonderful home and amazing parents who loved me. My education was thorough and personal, my gifts and interests encouraged and developed. I learned excellent values, a strong work ethic and a sense of civic and Christian duty.

One day I visited a city and was confronted with human brokenness. I saw poverty, racism, and injustice. I knew it all existed, of course, but never on this scale. Never before I had I been confronted by the systemic reality of a world of exploitation. I was filled with righteous anger against the wicked people who oppressed the pitied poor. I raised my voice in anger, shouting for justice.

But my noble crusade was not met by the cheering admiration of the sullied masses. Rather, I found that the poor were not nobly oppressed, but as likely to exploit each other as they had been exploited. When I called for them to work together for the greater good, I was not met with suport. In fact, I was scoffed at, ignored entirely or challenged harshly. Who was I to speak for them? Who died and made me their champion, pating myself on the back for slumming it, only to return to the comforts of Egypt.

I fled from the poor and Egypt alike. No longer could I attend the cool, comfortable sanctuaries of my easy faith, my own hypocrisy mocking me. Confused and ashamed, I remained distant, flirting with the edges of both worlds, trying to reconcile what I had experienced. Finally, after many years, I made a decision. If I was going divest myself of the pretention of Egypt, I would have to make some real changes.

And so I shifted my life into the inner city neighbourhood I now call home. Rather than a self-proclaimed saviour, I now try to be a true neighbour, sharing the joys and trials of life together. In the end, I can never fully abandon where I came from- I will always be white, always come from a good family, always benefit from my education. Neither would I want to lose everything.

I have come a long way and have much further to go. I have much to learn, but one lesson has become abundantly clear: we are all children of a much greater King of a much great Kingdom and I am no Prince of Egypt.

Emerging Church