Living in the Tension

ten·sion noun \ten(t)-shən:

1. the act or action of stretching or the condition or degree of being stretched to stiffness

2. either of two balancing forces causing or tending to cause extension

3. inner striving, unrest, or imbalance often with physiological indication of emotion

What is it about human nature that craves simplicity? We categorize our world by race, class, nationality, gender, religion and countless others until our lives are so black and white that we forget what the color grey looks like. When this delicate world of dichotomy is disturbed, we riot, lynch, segregate, debate, and condemn in an effort to scratch and claw our way back to equilibrium. What about tension do we so dread that we are willing to avoid it even at the cost of community, genuine relationship, justice, and equality?

Last week, over 130 Calvin students chose to embrace tension. On Friday, March 18 the Service-Learning Center commissioned 136 students, staff members, and faculty to travel to 10 communities across the U.S. to seek out and embrace ambiguity and complexity. Students traveled to Kermit, West Virginia and learned that mountaintop removal gets complicated when they meet people whose livelihoods depend on it. Students went to Knoxville, Tennessee and learned that not all at-risk women are strung-out crack addicts; victims of their own self-destructive lifestyles. Students visited Boston, MA and discovered that the roots of urban poverty are far too complex and interconnected to be boiled down to a sweeping condemnation of personal irresponsibility. For one week, these groups lived firmly in the tension. They did not seek perfect answers or even tangible solutions. They simply experienced and participated in the lives of those that we all too often try so hard to avoid and, believe it or not, they lived to tell about it! More than simply living through it, however, these students were challenged in ways they never had been, grew in ways they never imagined, and learned more than they ever anticipated. Can it be that tension and ambiguity aren’t all that terrifying after all? Are there lessons to be learned from embracing the grey- from asking the tough questions without seeking the absolute answers?

All this point, the cynics cry, “How much good can a week of ‘living in the tension’ possibly do? There’s a distinct possibility that your week of grey only made the lives of those you came into contact with worse. A week is not enough time to do anything of consequence in a community”. My response: You’re absolutely right…sort of. Certainly, the dangers of short-term missions are in play when we send groups of college students to communities for only 7 days. A week of tension-living is undoubtedly unsatisfactory in a world so desperate for engagement and relationship. My critique of the cynic’s critique is this: Cynicism is easy; hope is hard. Cynicism gives in; hope rebels. In the face of a broken world that, at every turn, reminds us that our efforts are futile, hope perseveres. Last week, 130 plus students witnessed the stubborn hope of faithful Christians throughout the United States who are refusing to believe the cynics. Faithful Christians who have made a commitment to the grey and are resting in the hope that somehow their work is making a difference. In fact, isn’t that the call of every Christian? To be faithful, no matter how persistently the world tells them to give up, trusting that God is powerful enough to take their broken, imperfect efforts and do the rest. After all, “This is what we are about. We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise…We are prophets of a future not our own.” (Ken Untener)

-Kyle Schaap