Repaso: Chuck Colson on common grace; “saudade”; peacemaking & prayer; suffering & art; Miroslav Volf resources; food industry infographic

1. Chuck Colson on common grace
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and former Watergate “hatchet man,” passed away this week. He was at times controversial in some circles, but in this podcast from a few years ago, Gabe Lyons and Andy Crouch discuss his positive legacy and share part of an interview with him, including his understanding of common grace:

The term "common grace" has fallen at a disuse in modern times. However, the Reformers understood it be God's grace spilled out in life for the benefit of non-believers, as well as, believers. Saving grace is the grace that transforms us. Common grace is what the just and unjust alike experience when God's people work to restore things back to God's original design.

2. “Saudade”
Those of us who grew up between cultures -- as missionary kids, business kids, embassy kids, and the like -- are often lumped together as third culture kids. My mom sent me this blog post on the Portuguese word “saudade,” which more or less means “a longing, a melancholy, a desire for what was.” It’s something TCKs commonly experience:

Third culture kids often struggle to give voice to their longing. Well aware that they are not from the country(ies) where they were raised, they still have all the connections and feelings that represent home. When trying to voice these, others look on with glazed eyes. Just recently someone said to me “But you’re not an immigrant! You’re American!” The tone was accusing and it was meant to be. What was unsaid was “Give it a rest! We know you grew up overseas. Big deal. You’re American and you’re living in America…” Ah yes….but I have “Saudade” I have that longing for something that “does not and cannot exist” and I know that. On my good days it is well hidden under the culture and costume of which I am now living. But on my more difficult days it struggles to find voice only to realize that explaining is too difficult.

3. Leymah Gbowee on peacemaking and prayer
Sarah Pulliam Bailey has an interview in Christianity Today with Leymah Gbowee, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Here’s Gbowee’s perspective on the connection between prayer and reconciliation:

There's something special about prayer itself that changes things. It consoles you in your faith and open doors. Reconciliation is often a spiritual process. If someone offends you deeply, it's too difficult for any man to heal you, so you have to encounter a higher power to receive that forgiveness. If you are the offender, even if the person you affected forgives you, you have to encounter something else to be able to forgive yourself. In order for reconciliation to take place, you have to be reconciled with God, yourself, and those who offended you.

4. When the world is suffering, what good do artists do?
William Dyrness, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Seminary, reflects on the purpose of art and the vocation of the artist when the world is suffering. Here’s how he begins:

Artists perform a strange alchemy, turning colors, nouns, and notes into landscapes, sonnets, and string quartets. Sometimes they perform an even greater magic by shaping images that keep us going, even in the darkness. As St. Augustine said, they provide the means of transport to move us along our journey. Our life, the Bishop of Hippo wrote, is a journey of the affections, which is meant to bring us to our true homeland in God. Many things attract our affections and move us, but they only take us forward when they are loved for the sake of God...

5. Online resources from Miroslav Volf
A blogger by the name of Andrew Goddard has compiled an impressive list of articles and lectures from Miroslav Volf that are available online. If my review of A Public Faith piqued your interest, this would be a great place to learn more about Volf’s work.

6. Ten companies that own what we eat
This fascinating chart shows the ten companies that own most of the food products we buy. Did you know the food industry was arranged this way? Click the image below to enlarge.

Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!

[Photo credit: Christianity Today]