Haiti has been on my mind the last couple of days for obvious reasons. I can remember a time that I may have watched the news but never associated the people inside the TV as part of God's creation too. Now my heart breaks for the people there. I read a story of a teenage boy being shot in the head over some food (as we throw away our leftovers because we have excess). I heard a story of a pastor there filming as part of a documentary who had a Haitian pimp try to sell him a young teenage girl. He payed for an hour and bought her a lunch. I have mixed emotions about this because I am sickened he is there making a movie and taking up room that someone could be doing search and recovery. I also personally don't think I would have been able to turn her back over like a piece of property. I think that may
be one of those times I would have taken a bullet for a stranger. I was on a blog for a pastor who had been talking about the violence. I saw so called Christ followers talking about putting a bullet in people's heads, showing them what a beat down was, and how they understand how God had chosen Haiti for this plague. DISTURBING!
I later found myself on a website of a Mennonite pastor who told stories of Haitians working together to dig survivors out of rubble with only their hands. He told how they put their differences aside and worked together. He saw people sharing what food they had. Sharing tents, blankets, and clothing. We tend to hear less of this because it isn't as likely to make it into a movie.
Talking with some people this week they commented how the ordeal reminded them of a movie. They even talked about how it could be made into a movie. It will be. We will watch the very event that devastated a country, killed thousands, and crippled more for entertainment. We already watch rape, murder, racism, hate all in the name of entertainment. It pains me to think that we have taken a horrific crime like rape and put it on the big screen so much we are numb to it. We hear about it happening in real life and it barely effects us. Instead of leaving us shattered and moving us into action we flip the channel to American Idol or Lost never pausing to realize that was a child of God robbed. Never taking the time to even pray for healing. We put this crap into our heads under the umbrella of entertainment and nub ourselves so we do not have to feel the pain of the broken and hurt. The very people the Son of God came to heal.
I pray for and see a generation of people willing to change the world and fight for the injustice of the land instead of talking about how things should be or use to be. I see a people rising up willing to stand beside those who have been forgotten. I see a longing for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven! The only way this will ever come to be is by one crazy word that seems to turn things upside down every time it is executed in it's purest form. LOVE
Hopefully the two words that stand out on this page stand out together. When we love how we are suppose to it disturbs those around us...not like the car with the system that rattles your door disturbs you... but that it disturbs you to find out why and how can anyone love like that.
My prayer is we never become numb to the condition of people around us. My prayer is that it never again takes a catastrophic earthquake to make us pay attention to our neighbors living in poverty. That we realize it is our responsibility.
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