Jan
14
2010
Live With Haiti In Your Heart
[Editor's Note: This post was written the evening of January 13, 2010]
***
Haiti saddens me. It saddens me in part because so many have lost so much. It also saddens me because I care so little.
I don’t say this flippantly. I say this because it’s the reaction I have right now. It’s not something I’m proud of; it’s simply what’s going on at this moment in my head and in my heart. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have a personal connection with anyone in Haiti. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have the kind of compassion I know I should have.
But this news does do something deep inside me. It affirms a gnawing feeling that there’s so much more to life and faith than what I know today. Today, I care about getting to bed late because I went to a UConn game with co-workers. Today, I care about wondering how many people are buying my new book. Today, I care about myself when there are others who need me to care about them.
Seeing suffering awakens me from the slumber of my ignorance, reminds me of my own self-centeredness, and plunges my theology into the deep water of reality. Is God sovereign, even as the earth heaves and fires are kindled? Is He good, even as the last cries of the dead drift quietly into the silence?
We know the rain falls on the just and the unjust. We know the Lord brings disaster on cities. We know He brings healing to the nations. We know He permits Satan to wreak havoc on His people. We know He restrains the devil. We know Jesus weeps over the lost. We know that some are born into suffering so that God might be glorified. There’s deep theology here, an ocean of questions and answers that flow in and through one another and leave us in one of two places: wondering where God is in the midst of suffering, or wondering at the mystery of this God who works all things, including suffering, for good according to His purposes.
I spent my lunch hour in a cemetery today. I don’t mean to be morbid, but it’s good to go to the place of the dead to be reminded that emails and deadlines and Twitter and phone calls aren’t quite as important as they seem throughout the day. It’s a good place to be when wondering at the mystery of this God who works all things, including earthquakes in Haiti, for good according to His purposes. And it’s a good place to go when thinking about what we’re supposed to do next. So:
Give if God moves you to do so.
Pray with zeal that the glory of God would shine brightly in the midst of this tragedy.
Weep for those whose tears are dried by despair.
Go if God sends you.
But perhaps most of all, live with Haiti in your heart. In a week, when the blogs and news cycles die down a bit, or in a month, when our lives consume us once more with other things, or in a year, when most of us will have long forgotten the day the earth broke under Haiti, another disaster will strike, and we will be awakened once more to the realization that we care far too much about the trivial and far too little about the eternal. We’ll be reminded that the bones of dead men testify that our lives are but a vapor. In that day, we will remember that living with Haiti in our hearts means living with a longing for the One who will bring renewal and restoration to a planet and a people who desperately need both.
My desire is that we give, and pray, and weep, and go, but that most of all we go to the Vine for comfort and hope and joy, even in the midst of great loss. When buildings fall and lives are ended, we need the earth-shattering, wound-healing, voice of the Son of God who says, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Lord Jesus, make Haiti new, a land where Gospel seeds are planted and Godly fruit grows into an abundant harvest. And make us new, each and every day of our lives, so that we will abide in You, for Your glory and our joy.
10 Comments
How can we go? Do you know who we could team up with?
Andrew, I don’t. But I’m trying to find out. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.
If anyone else can answer, please jump in.
The repeated message here is that people should not try to go, at least not yet. Right now the focus is on getting relief supplies and medical personnel in. Military and organized aid groups are moving in supplies and needed people. Individuals, smaller groups, untrained people, and people who don’t know the language would be more of a hindrance at this time.
We’re already starting to watch for needs that will turn up later. The dust will settle, the crisis point will pass, and Haiti will need groups to go in to help with cleanup and rebuilding. Instead of trying to find ways to get there now, be thinking and planning to go once the critical point is past and the need for more workers opens up.
We are not planning on going right now. Our trip is planning on the end of March to be heading over there.
This is an extremely honest, personal, and needed article. I myself am more moved than normal because of this tragedy, I gave instantly without thought which is normally not the case for me, and I have no idea why. There is no way I can truthfully credit myself in any manner. It is my belief that God puts these things on our hearts (or doesn’t) for a reason.
This article is absolutely necessary, and your writing is a treasure to God’s kingdom.
I don’t know when I have ever felt so much compassion for people I do not know in a place that I have never been nor wanted to visit because of the extreme poverty that exists there even in the best of times. Looking around where I sit right now doesn’t even begin to give me a picture of what these people have lost because most of them have never had the comforts that I take for granted.
I will pray earnestly and give generously.
Perhaps one way to begin caring more is to embrace the radical connectedness of the Body of Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about how when one part of the Body suffers, the whole Body should suffer — and he didn’t mean merely metaphorically. How can we suffer with our brothers and sisters in Haiti? I’m not sure, but I’ve been asking God to teach me how.
That’s an interesting thought, Stephen. This morning, I’ve been thinking about the following passage from 1 Corinthians 12:
“But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
I don’t know the full context of Bonhoeffer’s thoughts, but Paul seems to be saying that we, as the body, actually do suffer when one member suffers. I wonder if this is a nuanced difference from Bonhoeffer’s point (should suffer vs. do suffer, or put another way, we recognize their suffering is something we embrace rather than pursue).
Paul adds these comments square in the middle of a discussion on spiritual gifts which are empowered by God through the Spirit “for the common good.” Perhaps his point is that the gifts are meant for the unity of the body, in both suffering and rejoicing.
So I think your question to God is the right one. And I’ll ask it as well: God, teach us how to suffer and rejoice with our brothers and sisters in Haiti, and show us how the gifts you have given us by your grace can be used to restore and unify the body of your Son.
Thanks for your thought-provoking comments…
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