Yesterday I had a moment of heart wrenching brokenness for one of these so called "causes." I started thinking about what it would be like if i cared for all the injustices and oppressed people like I cared personally for this one instance. I pondered the phrase common to at least 100 modern worship songs, "break my heart for what breaks yours," and began to encounter the true meaning of that. When God's heart breaks for something, it must be intense pain. Surely God passionately weeps for his people. How can a truly good God not care intensely when he sees hurt and injustice? For us to pray that we would be broken like God is broken doesn't mean feeling sorry for someone or being moderately affected. It means complete vulnerability. It means willingly opening up your heart to be devastated and to suffer for someone else.
That seems so counter cultural. It is the "righteous anger" that people pick up--not the broken heart. We don't want to hurt; we don't want to be affected so that we are moved to tears and prostrate on the ground, desperate for something to be done...We don't want to be the people who cry all the time because then our compassion won't seem genuine or we seem too easily affected. The tough exterior is much more comfortable.
But I'm tired of it. I am going to cry. I am going to care. At least, I will try. I don't want to talk about something so awful as genocide without being moved by it. I don't want to think of the thousands and thousands of people who will die today from AIDS without hurting for them.
God must have a huge heart to be able to weep for so many people and still be joyous about everything good. I know my heart is not as big as his, but I pray that my heart will be enlarged by really caring people and that I will not be afraid to suffer some on their behalf.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
AIDS
Here are a couple things I have been learning from my book:
"AIDS is the biggest public health problem the world has ever faced. It has already surpassed the bubonic plaugue...An estimated 3 million people die each year from AIDS, a death toll that has been compared to twenty fully loaded 747s crashing every single day for a year." Another statistic said that 8,500 people die from AIDS every day. So many people!
The drugs only reach one out of five people suffering from AIDS. While there are considerable expenses in getting people in developing countries the drugs they need, the main expense comes from the patents held by the drug companies. Several generic medicines are being made, but the US cannot endorse them unless they are tested and approved by the FDA. Some pressure is being put on drug companies to allow the drugs to be produced without the patent fee for people in developing countries so that it would be more accessible, but there is little progress yet. The drugs remain expensive or inaccessible even though they are relatively cheap to produce.
I found another quote that said "Africa is America's neighbor. Africa is Europe's neighbor. We are daily standing by while millions of people die for the stupidest reason of all: money." Though I know very little about the conditions of the AIDS crisis, my reading has been unsettling. Helping AIDS patients doesn't have to be as expensive as it is!
There's really not a whole lot of meat to this, I suppose, but being aware of what is going on seems to be important. So there you go.
"AIDS is the biggest public health problem the world has ever faced. It has already surpassed the bubonic plaugue...An estimated 3 million people die each year from AIDS, a death toll that has been compared to twenty fully loaded 747s crashing every single day for a year." Another statistic said that 8,500 people die from AIDS every day. So many people!
The drugs only reach one out of five people suffering from AIDS. While there are considerable expenses in getting people in developing countries the drugs they need, the main expense comes from the patents held by the drug companies. Several generic medicines are being made, but the US cannot endorse them unless they are tested and approved by the FDA. Some pressure is being put on drug companies to allow the drugs to be produced without the patent fee for people in developing countries so that it would be more accessible, but there is little progress yet. The drugs remain expensive or inaccessible even though they are relatively cheap to produce.
I found another quote that said "Africa is America's neighbor. Africa is Europe's neighbor. We are daily standing by while millions of people die for the stupidest reason of all: money." Though I know very little about the conditions of the AIDS crisis, my reading has been unsettling. Helping AIDS patients doesn't have to be as expensive as it is!
There's really not a whole lot of meat to this, I suppose, but being aware of what is going on seems to be important. So there you go.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Global Compassion
Lately I have been thinking a lot about the role of compassion in the church. I have seen so many good examples of people reaching out to friends in compassion and grace. I have often been a recipient. And now this whole "Social Justice" thing has become quite a fad. Let's be green. Let's care about the people who don't have clean drinking water or are oppressed by their governments. That seems like a good fad, I suppose, until it goes out of style.
Why don't we use this time where its exciting to care about these issues to develop some genuine and deep rooted compassion. In a time where information is accessible, let's get out there and hear about what's really going on in our world. After talking with a good friend, I came to the realization that it's hard to be compassionate when you have no experience of a problem. But now we can in some small way experience it by learning and reading about it! For the first time, globalization is allowing us to develop global compassion.
I am going to pursue global compassion. I am taking advantage of the information age and trying to use it for good. I have just started reading "The Skeptic's Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis" and I am going to start posting some of the things I find on here so hopefully whoever (if anyone) stumbles across my blog they too can start developing compassion.
Why don't we use this time where its exciting to care about these issues to develop some genuine and deep rooted compassion. In a time where information is accessible, let's get out there and hear about what's really going on in our world. After talking with a good friend, I came to the realization that it's hard to be compassionate when you have no experience of a problem. But now we can in some small way experience it by learning and reading about it! For the first time, globalization is allowing us to develop global compassion.
I am going to pursue global compassion. I am taking advantage of the information age and trying to use it for good. I have just started reading "The Skeptic's Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis" and I am going to start posting some of the things I find on here so hopefully whoever (if anyone) stumbles across my blog they too can start developing compassion.
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