The Theology of Border Crossings

We spent over four and a half hours crossing the border from South Africa to Zimbabwe. It was hot and sweaty. And I discovered that most of my fellow sufferers in the queue had no concept of personal space. At one stage, the person behind had established full body contact with me from my left ankle to my right shoulder.

It was staggering. But we got through in the end. One usually does. We kept reminding ourselves that nobody has ever spent the rest of his or her life at a border post. At times, however, it felt like we had.

Eventually, the exit was in sight, but we almost drove over a ZIMRA inspector because he had the temerity to jump in front of our car when we thought that there was only a gate guard between us and freedom.

“Why are you in such a rush?” he asked.

Oh, how delicious it was to be zipping along again at 120km/h in an air conditioned car, weaving around potholes and police roadblocks. In fact, we were so relaxed that we slipped into a theological discussion ... as one does on such occasions.

It began when I shared with the family my temptation to falsify our customs declaration. I was anxious that some unreasonable ZIMRA official would apply an unfair duty on something we had to declare. I did the right thing in the end, having decided it was more important to honour God by being honest than to save a few thousand rand. But my confession led to an interesting discussion about anxiety.

Gail had been reading a book entitled Redemption by Mike Wilkerson. Wilkerson makes the piercing observation that idolatry leads to anxiety. For example, if one idolises money, one worries about having enough. And when one has enough, one worries about losing it. And because of the anxiety one adopts all sorts of unrighteous tactics to either make or hold onto money – like falsifying a customs declaration.

The same could be said for finding a spouse. How many women have compromised God’s standards for fear of becoming an old maid? How many people live with an irrational, nagging fear of losing a loved one? Then there is anxiety over health related issues. Could health and security have become idols which prevent you from serving God with an undivided heart?

It certainly got us thinking... how about you? But before you go – is it obvious that I’ve put on weight during my holiday? Not that I’m worried about it...

Cheers for now - Ian