Territories

Every so often, more often than I wish, my dogs bark all night. It isn’t the boogy man, or even an errant rat that they are barking at. It isn’t the wind whistling through the trees, or even the loud airplanes that could wake the dead. Instead, it is each other. And they are barking (or should I say bickering) over who is going to lay where. Alex is the largest, Roscoe the most tenacious, but Zoey, the smallest is the most annoying. And they bark and growl at each other until someone gives up and moves (or until either David or myself gets up and shouts at them).

I am also witness to a weekly argument coming from the back seat of my car – because for some reason, everyone wants a window seat – and no one wants the middle (even though I have tried to point out that it really does have the best view of all).

It seems that everyone has a sense of claim that sets a territory of some kind, be it physical or psychological.

Sadly it is this setting of ownership that has torn apart churches – this sense of possession that goes beyond service and enters a realm of “me and mine”. I have battled with this, and felt conviction in my heart for what I realized was pride. It’s something that even now, I find creeps into the fringe of my being as I try to reach out… which means opening up… which means letting go of my ability to control.

Anyone who listens to the news anywhere in the world has probably heard about the terrible violence that has gripped the townships here in South Africa. Nightly news reports tell of foreigners – mostly Mozambicans and Zimbabweans who have come to South Africa looking for a way to provide food and income to their families- who are being beaten, maimed and even murdered – all because of territory. Political Science aside, it is a horrible atrocious thing that is happening – and it is spiralling out of control.

These refugees are now camping out in police offices and town centers all over Johannesburg,waiting for the government to decide if they are going to step in or not – waiting to see if they will be “reintegrated” or be put on a bus back to the land they originally came from.

It’s sad to see what this issue of “territory” can do – it brings out the worst in people. And sadly, until the heart is humbled, and a realization dawns that there is not one of us better than the next – not one of us who deserves to be treated more humanely than the other – we will continue to brawl over what we think is “ours”, what we feel we deserve and the other doesn’t , and we will stop growing as a people. Our country will war, our churches will split, our businesses will cease to grow – and all we will have is that little piece of territory that we staked out as “mine” – holding tightly onto it, instead of experiencing the massive blessing that God had in mind instead. A sad loss for a measly gain.