So a group of medical personnel from our church came back from Indonesia yesterday. They worked with many people who were hurt by the tsunami. They met 1100 people's medical needs. The devastation is apparently beyond description of which the little video footage I saw 10 minutes ago testifies.
I think often my response to the incredible contrast between other’s suffering and my apparent ease of life is a special kind of self loathing. I don’t think this is a healthy or correct response. It isn’t my fault I was born into, what most of the world would consider, an incredibly wealthy home. It’s God’s fault. I think my response should be, first a gratitude for this blessing I know as my life that God has granted me with. And then an understanding of what is going on in the world around me and knowing that the phrase, the grass is greener on the other side of the hill could not be further from the truth.
This is what I’ve been struggling with over the past few months. Knowing what my response should be in the wake of terror and disaster around the world. Not just in Asia but in Africa, South America, the Middle East and everwhere else I look. I’m not really sure what my response should be. I only have so much money. But I guess I can always give more.
But is that what my heart and conscience are screaming for? Or is it something more?
2 comments:
Mentally responding to what is going on around the world is not all that difficult -- unless you decide to get personally involved. For example, you could go on one of those trips yourself! Of course, that would take more of a commitment. Most of the things going on -- terrorist attacks, government neglect of the population, theft, war -- are more or less distant thunder and rarely directly involve us. What is going on right around us everyday (that we could do something about) that we chose to avoid? It might not even involve any money, just time and effort -- help for the elderly, being a big brother, mowing someone's lawn, tutoring a school kid, etc. Most of these things are usually available if we are willing.
Yeah I know that responding in a practical sense is relatively easy in the sense that there are many practical ways to address needs surrounding us where we live. It's that distant thunder idea that worries me though. It might seem like distant thunder but is it really? I mean should it be to us? Whether something happens in Sudan or next door, on a small scale or a large one, I'm not sure it's really all that different. And it's the stuff that seems so large and uncontrollable that’s the source of my struggle. I don’t believe that should be the sole focus of our desire to intervene and help but it definitely should get our attention. It’s also the idea that it’s over there while I’m over here thus making it seem unimportant or at least not quit as important as what’s going on in my immediate surroundings that bothers me. I feel that same way. Or at least I did. But I don’t believe I should place a different level of priority on different needs in this world...whether they’re over the oceans or across the street.
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