So the other day this story came across my Ethiopian Google Alerts. For those that don't want to read the whole thing, the jist of the story is that a mentally handicapped Ethiopian man sent President Obama HIV+ blood. Crazy, yes. A real threat, no. It was really just another example of a time when the media dropped the ball on educating the public about HIV.
Did you know that EVERY 14 SECONDS A CHILD IS ORPHANED BY AIDS. Did you know that? Count that out just one time. Count to 14 and picture a child losing a parent, perhaps the second parent, to a preventable, treatable disease.
Then there's the statistic that ONE CHILD UNDER FIFTEEN DIES EVERY MINUTE FROM AIDS OR AIDS RELATED ILLNESS.
I read that last week and did more hours of research to make sure that was accurate (per UNICEF it is). Then I spent the better part of last week mad at God asking how in the hell He would let it happen. Why even create these babies to leave them motherless or give them a life that ends tragically short with few pleasurable moments in that life.
Then today at church we sang some of my favorite worship songs. One of them being Grace Like Rain. At the end of worship Andy just remained silent. It kind of hit me at once. The whole time I've been mad at God and pointing my finger at Him not understanding that He could be doing the same thing to me. How in the world can I sit here and be mad at the situation without doing anything to rectify it?
It's a little like sending soldiers to Iraq and having them just sit and wait for someone to literally make their feet walk. (Not the best analogy, obviously). But sometimes it does feel a bit like a war. A war on complacency. Of seeing humanity suffering and turning our heads. I have all I need to DO something yet I sit motionless, waiting. For what? For a sign or for money or for approval. It's ridiculous. I have all I need.
The time is "now", right? Lord help me sometimes I just want to crawl back into my age of ignorance. Things seemed so much easier then.
“Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving.”
(O. Henry)
I'm no writer, I assure you. Just a woman with a few things on her mind. A mom that makes mistakes, a wife that loves her husband more than words can say and a woman constantly seeing God in the everyday.
4 comments:
Thanks for the post. I've recently been convicted of this same thing. I just finished the book "From Ashes to Africa" and there is a quote at the end of the book that states: "Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world when He could do something about it...but I'm afriad God might ask me the same question." - Anonymous
Ignorance is bliss. I miss those days sometimes too. It seems the more you know, the more it hurts. It's all very overwhelming at times.
I've been dealing with these feelings too... recently a friend told me "All of the best things in this world and good deeds were originally started by Christians." While resisting the urge to slap this person, I got angry and thought to myself "Where are the Christians in the AIDS crisis?" And then I was convicted.
Thank you for this post. It puts into words the struggle of this past year. Thank God for his grace. He knows I need it!
Amanda
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