Marginalized People Deserve Our Best

A few lessons I’ve learned along the way

I’ll never forget the Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami of 2004.

I was a middle schooler in Chennai, India and remember falling off my bed that morning after feeling some tremors - nothing compared what others in Chennai who lived closer to the coast endured.

But I’ll never forget how the Church in Chennai quickly unified and mobilized to care for those affected by this Tsunami - especially our unhoused and poor neighbours.

Even the Christian school I was a student at did a food, toy and clothes drive for our affected neighbours. We were given clear instructions:

“No hand-me-downs, used or opened items. Because the people affected by the Tsunami and people in poverty deserve our very best.”

Do we truly believe that people living in poverty & oppression deserve our very best? And what does it look like to give our marginalized neighbours our very best?

Allow me to share another example of this with you:

I know many well-intentioned folks who say, “I’m going to work hard in my comfy corporate / business job for the next couple of decades and then retire early so I can work for a nonprofit organization. This way, I can afford the ‘nonprofit income lifestyle’.”

Every time I hear a Christian say this, I think - “How magnanimous! Surely, people living in poverty & oppression can wait a couple of more decades so that Bubba can live his best life now - until he’s ready to make that sacrifice for them.”

Because clearly, Bubba doesn’t believe that people in poverty & oppression deserve his very best. To Bubba, these marginalized folks are only deserving of the leftover years of his career. All so that Bubba can pat himself on the back and satiate his white saviour instincts.

But what would it look like for Bubba to give people in poverty & oppression the best years of his career? And what would it look like for us to give marginalized peoples our very best today? Whether that’s through our day jobs, our finances, our networks or our skills.

8 years ago, as a 22 year old, I had a choice. I could either take up a job in DC working on a presidential campaign OR I could fundraise my support, go back to India, and work as an unpaid intern for IJM for a whole year. And yet, God gave me the courage to do the latter.

6 years ago, as a 24 year old, I had a choice. I could either keep raking in the big bucks running a political consulting & lobbying shop in Atlanta OR I could put my advocacy & mobilization skills to use for people in oppression by shutting down this lucrative business, taking a 50% pay cut and moving to Washington, DC (one of the most expensive cities in the world) to work for IJM - a prospect I first laughed at when I was encouraged to apply. And yet, God gave me the courage to do just that.

2 years ago, as a 28 year old, I had another choice to make. I could either stay in a comfortable job and part of the world in the US OR I could leave everything I had ever known and immigrate (all over again!) to a new country (Canada) where I could provide leadership to make a meaningful difference on behalf of people in oppression. Again, God gave me the grace to do the uncomfortable and costly thing.

I don’t share all of this to toot my own horn. Even though the choice was clear each time, I handled the transitions in every season quite poorly as a foolish 20-something. Stupid mistakes were made. But God’s grace is sufficient - even on my worst days.

I share all of this to make a point: I don’t regret giving Jesus, Justice and people in oppression the best years of my life - my twenties.

Because marginalized people and their marginalized Saviour deserve our very best - even today. Especially today.

What I’m up to these next couple of weeks

I’ll be on a 6-city tour across Canada with Don Moen, Paul Baloche & Brooke Nicholls over the next couple of weeks. I’ll have the unique honour of emceeing these tour nights, presenting IJM Canada’s work and inviting around 8000 people across all shows to come alongside our work as Freedom Partners¹ - monthly donors who fuel the work of justice with IJM - month after month. We’re praying for at least a few hundred Canadians to join our work!

If you’re a church leader who would like to join me at a pre-show event with Paul Baloche in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary or Edmonton, drop a comment and I’ll email you the details.

I’d love your prayers as I head out on this intense tour! Specifically, I’d appreciate prayers for good health - especially for a brutal back issue I haven’t yet fully healed from.

Until next time!

1. www.ijm.ca/worship