“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

I would be a liar if I told you that everything is well and that life among the poor is glorious. These past few months with InnerChange have found me swaying back and forth like a tall blade of grass in the wind. Not in regards to my devotion to God, but to my health.

How I narrate the story of my life has everything to do with how I live in it. - Chris Rice

For the majority of my life I have hated my life story. To be honest, for the majority of my life I have hated the life stories of others. I have forcefully been without concern or remorse both the victim and the victimizer in my story. The paradoxes within those tensions have complicated my existence so much throughout my life that for many years I walked the streets seemingly without mind and soul. Healing from my life story has been a process overwhelmed with fear and suffering. In fact, there are still many elements of my story that I fear I will never find reconciliation.

As much as all this is true, the permission granted to me to retell my story has powerfully shaped the way I live in it today, and has begun the life-giving work of redemption.

I was in Romania last week, with members our summer camp team visiting with abandoned children we have known for the past dozen years. Over the years we have grown to be like a large extended family, with our times together resembling “family reunions” more than typical “mission trips.”

For me, the aftermath of my trips to this hard place—a large government child warehouse marked by deprivation and exploitation—is typically deep grief mixed with a little gratitude and brave hope. This time, the proportion was reversed. I find myself overwhelmed with thanks, and anticipation for the future. Our teen and young adult loved ones are going to make it.

I’m not sure what the tipping point has been. Conditions aren’t much better for these guys.

“Jimmy died. He overdosed in the bathroom of the public library.”

Claire’s words sent needles of fire from my gut to my head. I sat, stunned for a few moments, as if I was paralyzed. As her footsteps echoed down the hall, I began to cry. Thoughts raced through my mind of the last time I saw Jimmy.

He was so high on morphine that he hardly recognized me when we ran into each other on the street. It was the only time I ever felt like not being around him. It would be the last time I would ever see him. I wondered if I loved Jimmy, as Christ would have me love him.

If you want to know what happens when left-of-center Social Prophetic spirituality meets right-of-center Charismatic spirituality at the crossroads of power and pain, Bob Ekblad’s newest book, A New Christian Manifesto – Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom Of God, is the book for you. In this provocative book, Bob shares his encounter of how these two spiritual streams collided in his own life to form what he describes as the “whole ministry of Jesus.” He shares his own radically disorienting, transformative journey and what it means for those he serves.