I teach World Literature. Each day I post a current event from CNN for my students to see. I do this because I know that teenagers in particular are egocentric and I want them to realize that there is a big, big world out there. Today I came across a video of Haiti - a year after the earthquake. They are still in devastation, living out of tents. They are doing their very best to just live. Nevermind excess. Nevermind love and hope. They are struggling for life. I don't know if I will ever truly understand that devastation. At least I pray that I don't. The reporter spoke with a man who worked with computers and lived in a nice apartment. Now, he was living in a tent making paintings to sell in the street. He described the devastation and ended the broadcast with, "The country can do nothing. The government can do nothing. Only God can save us now."
Imagine... Imagine that level of heartbreak. Imagine that level of hopelessness. I do not believe my mind is capable of such a task.
"Then the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send YOU to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the children out of Egypt? He said, Bit I will be with you and this shall be a sign to for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses saidt o God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am the I am. And he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you" Exodus 3:7-15
Now I would be a fool to think that we can all run to Haiti and bring the country back to life. But we can do our part here. We can pray. We can love. We can hope. We can be their life. Brennan Manning said something along the lines of, you have two choices when you come across a person each day... you can be life or you can be death. Today... I choose life. Life for Haiti. Life for my family. Life for my friends. Life for my coworkers. Life for the man in front of me that refuses to turn on his directional. Today I choose to live.
"Then the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send YOU to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the children out of Egypt? He said, Bit I will be with you and this shall be a sign to for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses saidt o God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am the I am. And he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you" Exodus 3:7-15
Now I would be a fool to think that we can all run to Haiti and bring the country back to life. But we can do our part here. We can pray. We can love. We can hope. We can be their life. Brennan Manning said something along the lines of, you have two choices when you come across a person each day... you can be life or you can be death. Today... I choose life. Life for Haiti. Life for my family. Life for my friends. Life for my coworkers. Life for the man in front of me that refuses to turn on his directional. Today I choose to live.
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