Author Archives: shanedar

Please see the special note at the bottom of this week’s blog.

Imagine an idyllic Greek isle. What comes to mind? The picture in your head is probably a dead ringer for Samos Island: White, sandy beaches, towns so quaint you think they’re a Disney set and a sun that seems to kiss your happy face.

Well, at least that’s what Samos looked like until a couple of years ago. Now the population has swollen as asylum seekers continue to flood over the mile-wide straight from western Turkey.

In the spring of 2016, the European Union inked a deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants into Europe. Part of the deal included migrants staying where they land in Greece until their preliminary asylum interview, while another part allocated nearly $2 billion to Greece to care for them. The migrants are stuck on Samos. The money appears to be stuck somewhere else.

The result is a camp designed to hold 700 people now serves as a home of sorts for nearly 4000! Many more live in the woods adjacent to the camp, known locally as The Jungle. Food is scant. Healthcare hard to come by. Basic sanitation virtually non-existent. And the wait interminable.

As you might imagine, this creates a breeding ground for vermin, bugs and resentment. I wonder if it’s not an incubator for radicalism as well. Without justifying violence, it’s not hard to see how such might develop in situations like Samos today.

What can we do?

Throw up our hands in resignation? It’s tempting.

Tell them they should have stayed home? Some should have. Others left when their homes were blown out from under them.

Pray? Certainly a powerful, and in my case underused, response.

Go? I’m wondering about this. I don’t know, but maybe there are prayers to be prayed on site. Kids to be entertained. Pain to be absorbed and hope to be shared. Let me know what you think.

Though they may wonder, God has not forgotten them. Let’s not either.

Once a year I ask the Muslim Connect tribe to help this effort go forward by giving a financial gift. Muslim Connect has always been free and always will be. But this is your chance to say both “Thanks” and “Go get ‘em!” If you like what you’ve read, if you’ve been helped, I’d be grateful if you’d give. When you do, I’ll get you a copy of the brand new, “Ten Things Every Christians Should Know About Muslims” pdf. I’m crazy excited about how it looks and what it says. It’s designed to win hearts for Muslims and would look great on your church bulletin board.

Click here to help this message get farther in the coming year. Thank you.

Don’t you love the feeling of discovering something unexpected and good? Growing up in Indiana it was arrowheads in the field behind our house or mushrooms in the woods. On a walk last week here in Southern Colorado, I stumbled upon a beautiful pair of shed mule deer antlers.

I had that same feeling recently reading about a guy in Lancaster, PA who helps refugees host dinners in their homes. Bridge, the brainchild of Mustafa Nuur, himself a refugee from Somalia, is “a social enterprise business dedicated to introducing the cultures and stories of refugees through food and talk.”

Nuur says, “When you hear a refugee’s story, it’s going to be very difficult for you to hate them.” (Tweet this.)

What a brilliant idea! Nuur trains refugees from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq and elsewhere to host dinners for people who’d like to understand those cultures and traditions. He also arranges larger events designed to introduce the community to refugees. For these, he strongly encourages attendees to bring along someone who’s never met an immigrant.

Some of the benefits include:

1. Refugees make a little money.
2. The refugee’s culture, life and presence is validated.
3. Bridges are built between refugees and their new community.
4. Locals gain insight, appreciation and compassion that is otherwise unobtainable.
5. Connections are made that can lead to ongoing interaction and benefit.

Could this happen in your community? Maybe somewhere nearby? I would love to see this idea proliferate around the US, Canada and beyond.

Toward that end, can I ask you three things?

1. Pray for Mustafa and his efforts in Lancaster and other cities.
2. Let me know if you’re aware of similar, refugee-hosted efforts.
3. Reach out if you’d like someone to scheme with about launching this in your town. I don’t want to overestimate my practical help, but I will be your biggest cheerleader.

These have been some challenging days for Americans. Maybe even more challenging for you, if you’re from elsewhere. I want to think rightly about the violence in El Paso and Dayton, about the troubling situations in Hong Kong and Kashmir. About threats and woe and fear.

I want to be happy and at peace, but how can I if the bell does indeed toll for us all?

Into this sense of disquiet, my friend Brian’s words dropped recently:

I find that there is a true hunger, a deep longing among many people to relate to others quite different than ourselves. It begins with two vital attitudes:

1. An inquisitive learning posture that says, “I don’t know you, but I want to. I’m here to listen, to ask questions, to find out what makes you tick.”

2. A willingness to take a risk, to be vulnerable, to have an attitude of humility.  (Tweet these.)

I want those “two vital attitudes” in me. I want to find others who want them and encourage and equip them in their efforts.

There’s not much I can do to help protesters in Hong Kong, Christians and Muslims on edge in India, nor grieving families in Texas and Ohio. But I can cultivate those attitudes. I can be a little vulnerable and ask someone different from me what they think, how they’re doing.

This won’t usher in an age of utopia, but it’s what I can do, we can do. And God being who God is, the ripple effect of even a small effort is honestly incalculable. You in?

Thanks for reading this far. If you have a few seconds more, I’d like to ask you a favor. Yesterday, an insightful and influential website, The Denison Forum, published an article I wrote. It would be great if you could give it a little boost simply by clicking through to it. If you comment, I’d be over the moon! The Denison Forum might be a good way to get some of what we all think out to a wider world. 

Sometimes we should listen to our fears. They’re talking sense: “Keep eating potato chips at your current rate you’re going to die early and require an XL casket!”

Other times, not so much: “If I don’t forward that Facebook post all of my civil-rights will evaporate and a communist will be elected president!”

When it comes to Muslims, I assume a lot of people don’t really care. I get that. We all have lives and none of us can be concerned about everything. But I also feel like there’s a substantial amount of fear swirling around. Sometimes it manifests as anger, sometimes low-grade anxiety. I don’t want to judge that fear (well, usually not!), but I do want to understand it.

So honestly, what are we afraid of? What do you think? As you look around you, or even in your own heart, if you were to bullet point the fears you see relative to Muslims, what would be on your list? (Tweet this.)

Articulation seems like a good early step toward evaluation. And thoughtful evaluation should lead to wise action. I know I’m sometimes hindered from articulating my fears because, on closer inspection, the undesirable consequences may actually be worse than I’d thought. On the other hand, laying out my fears might demonstrate that I’ve been jumpy about shadows and vapors.

Either way, I’d love to hear from you: What specifically do you think you or others are afraid of when it comes to Muslims. If “fear” is too strong, maybe back it off a bit and talk about what concerns people. Feel free to email me your thoughts or simply put them in the comments here. Thank you for taking some valuable time to help us all.

I’ll be speaking about fear this weekend (July 28, 2019) at New Song Church in San Dimas, CA. If you’re in the neighborhood and can sneak out on your own church for one Sunday, I’d love to see you there! I’ve been assured there’ll be coffee and snacks!

I wouldn’t trade my Indiana upbringing for anything. Although its homogeneity was only exceeded by its humidity, it profoundly shaped me. Maybe your kids are likewise growing up where everyone is the same color, speaks the same language and, more or less, serves the same God. Or maybe your neighborhood is changing, getting browner and more diverse in ways that shouldn’t, but do, feel a little scary.

Either way, don’t we want our kids and grandkids to grow up with the empathy and wisdom of God? I don’t care so much if they know the books of the Bible in order, but I do want them to love God and their neighbors like Jesus does.

If your littles are readers, here a few titles that will open wonderful doors in their minds. These come from a librarian friend who’s curating such books in part to prepare her charming little white Indiana town for the coming influx of Muslims. See her complete list here.

Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan (picture book) Culture clash is a real thing! Rubina is going to her first-ever birthday party and her mother doesn’t understand why she doesn’t want to bring her little sister. Misunderstandings abound and grace is required.

Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan (middle school) Amina has never wanted the spotlight, but everything is changing since. . .her best friend is “Americanizing” and thinks Amina should too. When Amina’s mosque is vandalized, can she find the courage to speak up and stand up for what she believes?

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (teen) Darius has only known life in America, but for the first time he is going to Iran. Navigating the minefield of culture clash and his desire to make friends, Darius may just find out what it actually means to be “okay.”

I’d love to hear your suggestions. If you’d like to see what else is on my reading shelf, let’s connect at goodreads.com.

Are you looking forward to Heaven? What about Heaven are you looking forward to? Being with Jesus? No more tears and pain? Flying like a bird? Maybe MercyMe’s I Can Only Imagine is playing in the background of your mind as you consider this. A friend of mine says, “Being with Jesus and my son.” The son died in a car wreck several months ago. That brings perspective.

Muslims have a vivid and compelling sense regarding the eternal status of Believers. Jannah, roughly Muslim Heaven, is spoken of in the Quran, the Hadith (collected sayings of Muhammad that carry varying degrees of authenticity) and additional works.

If I say “Muslim Heaven,” one of your first thoughts might be, “Yep, 72 virgins for the dudes! Snicker, snicker!” While that specific notion is not actually in the Quran, some of the sensual descriptions could cause a sailor to blush.

This is less sexy, but it’s in the Quran: “Allah has promised the believing men and believing women gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally, and pleasant dwellings in gardens of perpetual residence; but approval from Allah is greater. It is that which is the great attainment.”

Somewhere alongside the offers to eat everything you want and then belch perfume, there is a desire for many Muslims to see, to be with, God. While I don’t understand the logic embedded in, “Can’t drink wine here, but there’ll be rivers of it in Heaven,” I don’t want to caricature or disrespect Muslims. It seems counter to the way of Jesus, the way of love.

Then there is the unsure, wishful aspect of admission to Muslim Heaven. As I read articles on how to get to Jannah, many ended with a fingers crossed, “if God wills.” Ah, if our Muslim friends only knew how much God wills it.