Life on the Web, Story #3: WTH, God

A few nights after the events in my last post, I was following the blog trail and came upon this story.

Go ahead--please read it.  But I would advise you to wait until you have a quiet room and a few minutes to focus on the story.  It is appallingly tragic, and it is vitally important.

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The writer's prayer at the end pretty much sums things up--Why Lord?!  Although I confess my mental language was a bit stronger than that, as the title of this post alludes.  After crying and praying for a few minutes after reading it--my own maternal experiences are still close enough that as I read I had very strong, realistic physical and spiritual reactions, I imagine just an inkling of what these women might have been feeling and thinking and fearing--I realized that the truth is God is there.  Ok, then, why doesn't he DO something?!  And then my mind suddenly went back to the quotation that I have kept at the top of this blog for a while now.  God is at work throughout the world, every day.  He sometimes intervenes in miraculous ways, but I believe most of the time He uses those who love Him, who want to love the world through Him, and who just show up, ready to be used.

At first I cried partly too because I felt so helpless, wishing desperately I could be there to help, and then since I could not go, wishing there was more international help, esp. from those with hearts to do the Lord's business.  But then I started thinking about how I believe, like in my last story, that God does not call us all to go to different countries to do His work--He asks us to be available to Him where we are, in our everyday lives.  To serve Him wherever He puts us, loving whomever He puts in our path in any given day.  I am supposed to love my neighbor.  And while the modern world feels so much smaller than ever, so that we can reach out to all nations in God's name, I am not so sure we are supposed to feel like we should.  In fact, the world seeming so small and yet its problems so big all at the same time I think leads us Western Christians to feel overwhelmed and just want to stick our heads in the sand.  There are too many people groups suffering, too many countries at war, too many human rights being violated, too many children forgotten.  We do want to help, but are too easily immobilized by the pain of it all.

And what about the people of Haiti helping one another?  I could not help but think of how the article indicated it was a common experience those poor women were going through out on the street.  And yet in this story there is no mention of any Haitian women--just average moms like me--out there trying to offer comfort, even if they could not actually help.  Where were the women who had been in that place before, who knew what these women were feeling, who remembered the terror and could offer solace?  Haiti is supposedly mostly Christian; according to wikipedia, "About 85% of the population claim Christian beliefs, and the most professed denomination by far is Roman Catholicism." Yet the article goes on to say that roughly half of the population of Haiti also practices Vodou ("voodoo").   Is this a sign that maybe the hearts of Haitian Christians are being distracted from God's truth, and His call to ease the suffering of their neighbors? 

Before any of you get all up in arms about how audacious it is for me to sit in my pampered American life and say those Haitians should be helping themselves. . . well, they should.  I am not excusing myself or anyone else--too, too many of us are calling ourselves followers of Christ when we can't be bothered to lift a finger to help anyone in His name, let alone sacrifice a lot for it, certainly not lay down our lives (i.e. our empty selfish strivings) for it.  Remember the story in the Bible about Jesus pointing out to his disciples the poor widow who gave only two small coins to the collection at the temple?  He praised her not for how much she gave, but how much her gift cost her.  There is love in such a gift, and sacrifice, and trust in God's provision.  And God asks the same of His struggling Haitian children as he does of His pampered Western Christians--and after reading the article I was ashamed at how much we are all denying Christ daily in how we all daily turn blind eyes to all the suffering around us.

I care very much about Haiti--that's why I wanted you to read the article, so you would care too.  If we can't help in physical ways, we can pray.  We should pray, asking God to make right what we cannot--which is, after all, what He is so great at.

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These are not completed thoughts, just bits I am still working out.  I am worried this sounds like a sermon.  I don't mean it to be.  But when I sat down to write tonight, and was working on the previous post, I realized the two stories were connected. Here's how:  Keri has been recently living and writing about sacrifice and trusting in God.  I learned long ago that there is very little coincidence in the world, and my coming upon her blog and her story at this stage in my life and in my spiritual journey does not feel like  coincidence.  Certainly reading her blog post today does not feel like a coincidence, when it so perfectly takes all these ideas that have been in my head and heart and lays them out so I can't ignore them any more.

Well, I have a feeling I will still be ignoring them a little longer--or "processing them" as I often say.  But God has been moving so clearly, so forcefully in my spirit in the past few weeks, I don't know how long I can ignore Him.  I don't know what He is going to ask me to do, but I know I am supposed to say, "Yes."


So I'll end with another quotation that, too, breaks my heart, because it is true:

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
--Ghandi