The Sai

Taking you back three years prior to this time, Shelly and I had an opportunity to move back West for her four year residency program.  Since the day we were married, and even before then, the decision had already been made – we would leave Memphis to move back West as soon as Shelly graduated from medical school.  Of course, God always seems to have other plans that differ from what we dream up for our own lives.  As the time inched closer for us to “decide” where we might spend the next four years, as much as we tried to ignore this nudging, God very clearly led the two of us individually in coming to the same corporate conclusion: it was not His will for us to leave Memphis but rather to stay for at least another four years while Shelly finished her medical residency.  Out of obedience we submitted to this, trusting that He had plans for our lives and a purpose for our staying in Memphis.  In every regard, it was clear that Shelly and I were to stay in the South, at least for this season of our lives.

Now to the end of her residency, we faced another life-changing decision, “Where will we go once Shelly completes residency, if we go anywhere at all?”  Going back to our visit to Wyoming the fall of 2008, much of my time (as well as Shelly’s) was spent seeking to better understand God’s leading in this decision and whether or not His leading had anything to do with taking us back West.  I am sure that this will come as no surprise to many of you if you have been to Jackson Hole, my hometown where all of my family still lives today, but it is the wealthiest county in the nation.  Over the past 30 years, Jackson has changed tremendously.  The very modest home I was born and raised in (a 1,400 sq ft house built by the hands of my dad, a carpenter) cost roughly $80k for the a few acres of land, a house, and a two-car garage.  Today this property is worth somewhere in the vicinity of $1.5 million!

So what is my point in sharing any of this?  The point is that while I was in Jackson seeking His leading I had a deep realization that the place I wanted to be was truly one of the wealthiest places in the United States, thus, reciprocally, as far away from the poor as I possibly could be.  Certainly, not everyone in Jackson is rich, and you do have your occasional homeless person (though typically it is too cold), and there is a growing Hispanic population that certainly can be considered marginalized in our small town, but more or less, poverty and oppression does not exist anywhere to the degree that it does in Memphis or similar poor communities.  My heart was stirred, shaken and forced to ask myself this question – “What is our responsibility, as a family seeking to live as disciples of Christ, to the poor?”  In answering this question I was given this three-pronged approach to understanding Scripture that I call the Sai.

In my understanding of Scripture there are a few dominant themes interwoven throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Being that I am very visual in my learning style, allow me to offer the picture of a Sai, the chosen weapon of “Raphael,” the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  Now, I’m not sure of the design and why the weapon is made the way it is, but it works well in helping to better understand three dominant themes of the Bible:

First, the center blade, which is the longest blade that is directly connected to the handle, is the primary structure of the weapon.  I want to compare this blade to the central theme of Scripture – God’s primary agenda is to glorify His own name.  From creation to Revelation, God acts in order that He may receive the glory, praise and fame that is due to His name.  Philippians 2:10-11 says, “For this reason also, God ^?highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him ^?the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Thus, as disciples of Jesus, our primary purpose and agenda is simply this: to live and do all things to and for the glory of God.

On either side of the center blade is a pair of identical blades, smaller than the center blade, but significant nonetheless.  Just as these are not the primary structure of the Sai, they are still very much prevalent, and represent a secondary theme of Scripture: God’s mandate for justice.  Throughout Scripture we see that God is a God of justice, thus, we are to be a people of justice.  “This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3).  As disciples of Jesus, living for His glory, His concerns must be our concerns, thus, justice is as important to the disciple as it is to God.

Lastly, the third blade, which is identical to the one we just discussed, portrays its equal importance to God’s mandate for justice while yet remaining secondaryto God’s primary agenda to glorify His own name.  Specifically, this third theme is: God’s mandate to take the gospel to all nations, which He does by sending out His disciples to fulfill the Great Commission.  God’s agenda to glorify His own name is a global agenda and one day “a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language will stand before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-10).  As followers of Jesus Christ, we have no option but to love the nations as He Himself loves the nations.

Ultimately, it was primarily due to this newfound understanding of living our lives as disciples of Jesus to orient ourselves around that which is most dear to the heart of God that our family relocated with another family to the South Side of Billings.  Our purpose in doing so was to: immerse ourselves in the community by living in the community as we raise our families; seek to love God and love our neighbor, making disciples as we go; and to plant a network of house churches oriented around these principles.  Obviously, the work of CLDI is a natural fit with this orientation, for which we are incredibly grateful.  My heart for the Church here in Billings and abroad is that we may humbly live such lives, zealously living for the glory of God, all the while participating in God’s heart for justice and taking the gospel to all nations.  Oh, how I pray the Lord may do a great work among us and that we may taste of His sweetness as we expend ourselves to follow in the footsteps of Christ!

Eric Basye

July 2012