Vision, Sight and Leadership

I have learned more about the situation in Egypt since my initial posting on the topic, and realize that I was overly optimistic about the Muslim Brotherhood.  Nonetheless, I see tremendous potential in this moment of "people's rule" in Egypt.  I say this not without a sense of trepidation at the current anarchy-like situation and at the potential outcome being a worse dictatorship than before.

I just finished watching Avatar and am reminded both of the horrors of war and violence, and the power of community, hope, forgiveness and leadership.  "Where there is no vision, the people perish," reads the King James Version of Proverbs 29:18.  Who casts vision in your life?  Would you not say that those "vision-casters" are also, in the deepest and longest-term sense, your leaders?  Do they not shape your perspective, your understanding, and therefore profoundly affect your feelings and decisions?  Its interesting that in Avatar we see two different especially strong leaders standing before groups that are hanging on their every word: Coronel Quaritch, human "head of security," and Jake Sully after he becomes "Toruk Makto," the conqueror who can unite the tribes of Na'vi.  The Coronel's message is simple: kill or be killed.  He inspires his troupes with the belief that everything on the Na'vi's planet is out to get them and wants them dead and the only way to survive is to kill them.  This is countered immediately by the scene of the Na'vi doing everything in their power to restore Grace, a human avatar who received a gun wound from Coronel Quaritch himself.

Although Sully is also inspiring troupes for war, he gives a different sort of speech.  It is a speech that honors life, recognizing the value in every living thing, and declares them worth defending.  Better yet, he asserts that it IS possible to defend successfully what is best and most valuable in the world: life itself.  Where brotherhood, sisterhood, and community are strong, there is always the possibility of making something new and better out of an awful situation.

What do your vision casters tells you?  That there is hope and the possibility of friendship in every situation?  Or that the best you can expect is survival at the expense of others?  Are you listening to the right leaders?  Another famous speech-giver once said:

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body... If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ... As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!”  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."


If you have never experienced that kind of community, I encourage you to seek the leader of the group described in this last quote.  If you are wondering who that is, I submit the following quote: "[Jesus] is the head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18, NIV).  The previous paragraph is found in 1 Corinthians 12:12, 15-21, 26.  It is to Him I continually submit the situation in Egypt, understanding that He has not promised to always free us from suffering, but deeply knowing and believing that He loves each and every one of the people involved in that situation.  He is the one who most deeply SEES THEM.