Nicaragua: I Have Seen the Kingdom
Guest Contributor: Andrew Greer
Over the past year I have been decidedly thinking and studying more about what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Last April I visited Nicaragua with two friends who have, probably unknowingly, helped me refine my convictions on how to be a follower of Jesus, the Christ, both in mind and heart.
Ben Greene, director of Food for the Hungry’s Artist Program in Nashville, and I have had a plethora of mealtime discussions, tweet-er banter, and phone conversations about Jesus, his teachings, and how they inform us more wholesomely of who God is, who we are, and our relationship with our Creator. And a couple years ago, one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Cindy Morgan, encouraged in me a “Hymns for Hunger” touring idea that would encompass not only music, but mission—making the music matter—by using our tunes to extend a hand to those who have somehow fallen on hard times here in the United States and across the world.
Both friendships echo Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees’ question in Matthew 22: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replies, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (NIV).
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these. Not on doctrine. Not on tradition. Not on socioeconomic status or cultural backgrounds. On these two things: Love God. Love each other. And as we love, Cindy, Ben, and I gain insight into the bigger kingdom of God picture that Jesus’ entire life supported, completely changing how we view ourselves and, as a result, changing how we view each other.
I grew up on the outskirts of West Texas. Hot. Dry. Windy. Arid West Texas. If subjected to the 100 degree-plus heat too long, you didn’t sweat. You just died. Consequently, my childhood frame acclimated to the equivalent of a non-stop hair dryer, not a sauna.
Last April, Cindy and I ended up in the colorful and humid country of Nicaragua with Ben to observe first-hand Food for the Hungry’s big-picture community development projects that we had been supporting during our “Hymns for Hunger” tour dates across the United States. Before leaving the States, Ben prepped us for a morning of beekeeping in the FH-partnered community of La Flor by releasing a Spanish Inquisition soliciting our shoe sizes and bee allergies. Cindy said she was mildly allergic and then purchased an EpiPen. For a West Texas boy, in 95-degree, high humidity, full-body sweat heat, slipping on the white potato sack suit designed to screen us from a community of deadly honey bees was the equivalent of drowning.
But the immediate physical reward sure was sweet: organic Nicaraguan honey. The big picture spiritual reward was profound.
Deep in the forests of Nicaragua, as I witnessed a group of local community men expertly guide Cindy, Ben, and me through the honey-making process, I witnessed this broader, kingdom of God perspective I’ve been so wholeheartedly trying to grasp in my personal spiritual walk over the past year. I listened intently to these Nicaraguan men tell their stories about how something as simple as local honey is eliminating poverty—physical and spiritual—in their community.
Practically, the raw good, exported mostly to Europe, is providing for their families’ day-to-day needs, alleviating the financial burden formerly pressed on kids and allowing the children freedom to complete their education. Spiritually, it is altering the way they think about themselves, about their children, about their neighbors, and about their Creator. In short, it is completely changing their lives.
For a few days we witnessed how the innovative minds of FH and motivated hearts of FH child sponsors are not only quelling our Nicaraguan neighbors’ daily needs but inspiring their eternal hopes, confirming the long and storied connection between physical and spiritual poverty.
We returned from Nicaragua unscathed and unstung (God have mercy), but not unchanged. Running away from bees, licking fresh honeycomb, and practicing dysfunctional Spanish with our new amigos, I kept ruminating over our great friend Jesus’ big-picture prayer to his father in Matthew 6: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (v. 10).
And I thought: Today, I have seen the kingdom.
Andrew Greer is a Dove Award-nominated singer/songwriter, respected writer and co-creator of the innovative “Hymns for Hunger” Tour. www.andrew-greer.com
