I’m also reading through ‘The New Friars’ by Scott A. Bessenecker with a friend and I’m really beginning to get wrapped up in it and challenged to live differently where I’m at. I can’t really mark it in the ‘done’ category just yet, but shortly.

One of the things that really fleshed it’s way out as we talked through it this afternoon was this idea of being incarnate with marginalized groups; being present when you don’t have to be. Specifically, in the book, he talks about the poor and the challenge of living with people in intractable poverty. It’s a worthwhile read and I highly recommend it; however, we really were talking at length about the idea of being incarnational today and it got me thinking.

The call, as Scott sees it, is pursuing community with people not like you (Scott, if you for whatever reason read this, am I hitting the nail on the head?) and pursuing relations with marginalized in our world – the poor. I thought and interesting question, for me personally, was how can I be incarnational? Who are people that my culture marginalizes? I was also thinking and got called out on another conversation that I had this week where I mourned the lack of gen-x relationships in my life at the moment. InterVarsity DNA always called for having older, younger and peer relationships to learn and grow from. I was mourning the abundance of Pauls in my life, some of which, I didn’t see any value in and felt distant from because they just don’t understand where I’m at. Even though, I have a couple of Barnabases, and a couple of Timothy’s, it still seemed this week that I was being pulled in all different directions and none of which I particularly liked.
As I look at our culture, age is somewhat of a bizzare blight on a person’s ability to understand. IT seems to punish age by subjugating people to just simply ‘not understanding’ or having the capability to grasp new technology. Or groups like U2 somehow fail to ‘rock’ when they cross this magical barrier of being 40 or older. Age in the US is anything but good. It got me thinking, how much do I marginalize those people in my life and mourn, to be honest, the fact that I’m with them because they simply don’t understand me or what is going on in my life? How often do I pursue diversity and unity and reconciliation, but pass by an older person’s opinion (other than the couple I meet with regularly) or somehow value them less because they are simply old? How often do I even devalue them?
That’s when God really challenged me with the idea of being generationaly incarnate; to value those times and be present in people’s lives . Anyway, I felt a bit of freedom from a perceived loneliness this afternoon when I thought about those times I’m around older folks who go on about retirement and the call to be generationaly incarnate and to care for and be present with those around me that culture tends to pass by. I’m still processing what this means, but this afternoon I was able to get a really good glimpse into what it means to be present and to love those people around me that culture passes by.
Disclaimer: As I thought about this, I realized that I do have some good, in fact great, friendships with people that are close to my age (including one of my closest friends here who is in a very similar life stage and who I meet with regularly on Thursday nights).

Further Disclaimer:  I also realize that 34 doesn’t equal 20 and that to some, I’m more than incarnate to older people – I am an older person. Meh, I say, I still feel like a young adult :) . And, I’m learning to not care about age :) .