Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I sit stunned... and disgusted... (News on Somalia)

Disgusted would be a good word, but I think I may be more than that. The headlines on Google Reader:

MSNBC:                                                                                                                                                     “Democrats Fall Short in Wisconsin Recall Elections”
“UK Readies Water Cannons as Rioting Spreads”
“Back from the Dead? Young Surfer Amazes Doctors”

USATODAY:                                                                                                                                                
“Census tracks 20 years of sweeping change”                                                                                          “Americans’ message on joint debt panel: Let’s make a deal”                                                                     “As riots rage, Britons want show of force”

Google News is the same things. Yahoo News is talking about “Big tickets deals are coming,” “Worst foods for your teeth,” or that “Obama announces new fuel standards for big vehicles.” Let’s also look at Britain riots, North Korean/South Korean news, etc.

THERE ARE 600,000 CHILDREN ON THE BRINK OF STARVATION IN SOMALIA!!! HELLO!!! WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

This doesn’t happen over night. A famine that is the worst this country has seen in 20 years doesn’t happen in a week. It takes time and is gradual, and then the effect of death hits hard like a Mack truck hitting a Smart car. What are we doing!!! Who cares about our S&P credit scores, who cares about big tickets deals, or the worst food for our teeth. There are people with NO food to care about what’s happening to their teeth! Families are losing all of their children to starvation as we, throw away scraps and looking for more food to throw away.

We are called to care for the least of these… and they are dying right in front of our eyes while we worry about fuel costs. Disgusted with myself and my peers as my children sit healthy in front of me playing on the computer, and are fighting over who gets the mouse. My heart breaks knowing that as I sit here while two parents are surrounding the last of their three children in agony over his death and no money to bury him.

I pray they have hope in Christ. I pray that someone has gotten to them to share the hope that only He can give to such grief as this. Devastated to think that so many have already perished without that hope and that message living in their lives, and devastated knowing more are to following. How can we ignore it with our “World News” being focused on Britain’s riots.
Riots starting because people have no jobs and no money…

Really?! You are destroying your home, your country’s safety, and yet people that have no choice are just sitting still dying, looking on as the flies swarm their dead… how can this even be truth? However, it is!

Truth of a sinful world… seeking revenge and hate… glorifying riot crimes… ignoring the reality of all of us sitting behind the computer while hundreds of thousands die from malnourishment, diseases, and hopelessness.

We are so arrogant to think that we don’t deserve to be treated unfairly; we don’t deserve to talked about badly; we don’t deserve to lack a job and money. What do you deserve? You deserve the right to riot, to find the right food for your teeth. I wonder what do you think that those that die of poverty deserve?

I know the truth and fairness of it all is that we die and spend eternity and hell. Yet… Christ died to bear this fate. He died so that I could experience hope. He died so that I might believe in Him and love the least of these. Do you love the least of these? Do you love the people of Somalia? Do you love the people of Peru, of Africa, of Guatemala? How about Thailand, Ethiopia, Bolivia, or Tanzania? Do you really love them?

As you sit down finishing your summer vacation at the beach or lake what are picturing?
Right now all I can see is the people that God loves dying in a land with no water in sight or no crops to be eaten. You say, why God? How could you let this happen? I say, He is a just and fair God. He will bring condemnation to those that do not believe, and those that do will suffer and still have hope because that is what He promises. Christian living is not a straight away path to the land of milk and honey.

No… No… Paul, Peter, Moses, Isaac, Lot regular men, Hannah, Sarah, Mary regular women, all to prove that even with love of Christ, His people will suffer for Him and that is the only life worth living because it is when you are of Him and not of this world that true hope comes.
Sure it’s a hard pill to swallow (and a huge one at that), but for those that love God all things come together for His good.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

We can’t think that God only uses good for His will. No, bad must happen for His will to be done. Jesus’ death is the greatest example. A holy perfect man died for my sinful ungrateful flesh. How unfair is that?

Lord, You are full of such splendor; you are God almighty and just. Please bring hope to people that haven’t been awakened by your Holy Spirit. Grant them the most excellent sense of hope in You. Help us, Lord. May this famine in Somalia bring us to do Your work that You have commanded us.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because Iam going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  John 14:12-14

I just reached in the refrigerator to get Logan a glass of juice. Lord, please don’t ever let me forget the blesses You have given me. Please, help me to remember to give to those that need to be given to. Don’t let this greedy selfish American living destroy my calling for You! Heart Breaking that I can reach 10 feet away and supply my children’s hunger and thirst while thousands reach 10 feet to hold their dead child one more time…

No comments:

Post a Comment