GlocalNet

I’ve been traveling throughout the world over the last 15 years, from Vietnam to the Middle East. I used to fear certain people – Muslims, atheists, communists. But from getting to know these people and working with them through the years, I have come to love them. I have learned so much from them that I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else, and for that I am grateful. It’s amazing to follow Jesus’ example of welcoming the stranger, and to find out how much this enriches both your lives.

I don’t know if everyone has been able to have these kinds of experiences engaging with people of other faiths and backgrounds though.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about my daughter Jill’s generation, where glocal comes so naturally. They volunteer together around the world, building beautiful relationships and bridges, interconnecting everyone, through everything from Facebook to serving together.  They have huge amounts of optimism that they can fix the mess we’re leaving them.

At the end I wrote that we need to do everything we can to help them, and make room for their ideas and energy, because supporting them is the best hope we have to build this world together.

This is partly why I love Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), an organization based out in Chicago headed by my Muslim friend Eboo Patel. At IFYC, they’re all about training the next generation of leaders – from all religions – to be like my daughter, open to others, ready to work together, and make a world that they want their kids to grow up in. They do this by working on college campuses all across the country, training students on how to work across lines of faith to get to know each other, get their friends on board, and create projects that deal with real, local and global issues. I bet a lot more folks are hearing about IFYC these days, because there was recently an article in the New York Times about their interfaith work.

If we want to raise a new generation of strong, faithful Christians, we have to help them learn how to live side by side with everyone else in this world today. I’m thankful that my friend Eboo and his team in Chicago are working on that every day.