When Two Extremes Collide

For some reason I tend to have situations in life where God opens the door of insight and allows me to see two very extreme situations at the same time.  Allowing me be torn on what is right, what is wrong, and what I should do about it.  Here are a few examples.

1. Four months after hurricane Katrina tore through Mississippi and New Orleans I had the opportunity spend as week in Kiln, MS cleaning up and getting to know some of the people.  They had nothing, everything had been taken away.  New Orleans was devastated and all hope was lost, seeing the destruction there was surreal.  Coming home from this trip impacted me more than I could ever imagine, I walked into the front door of our apartment and fell to my knees and wept.  I wept because I had so much stuff.  I had just come from a place that had nothing, to my place that had more than everything.

2. One day I went to a conference in Orlando.  One of the things they had was a little unknown group of people where trying to raise awareness for a cause, no one had heard of them.  In fact, they were not even that organized yet, that had shot some video footage of some things they saw in another country and wanted to make a movie about it.  That same night I came home from the conference and watched the movie 'Lord of War.'  A film about under the table, back room deals of gun distribution/selling in war torn African countries that had pretty significant rebel armies.  That organization I described earlier was Invisible Children, they fight for the kids that get kidnapped and forced to fight for rebel armies in Uganda.  In the same day my heart was gripped by an organization that was trying to end child slavery in rebel armies of Africa, only to get home and see a movie about the gun trading that supplies these rebel armies.

3.  Today, I watched the movie Hotel Rwanda, a film about the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.  I only got to watch the first half of the movie, then I went to a Super Bowl party, then back home to finish the movie.  In a matter of 6 hours I was completely torn from one side of the road to the other.

So now I sit here at 1 in the morning thinking about the things that go on all around the world that we have no clue about, and I think about how I spent my evening: hanging out, watching a game that is made for entertainment, and stuffing my face with pizza and dessert that is really doing me no good.  Is football evil, is me spending time with my friends terrible, what is wrong with me living in a country enjoying what God has blessed me with?  These are the thoughts I have and I tell myself, no they are not bad, but then my heart reminds me of how many people in the world are wondering if tomorrow will be there last day to breathe, they are wondering if they will be able to find their family members who are missing, they know that the rebel army is gearing up for a new attack and have no idea if they are going to see their kids tomorrow.

My heart is so torn there is no way I can go to sleep.  But what I ask myself is what do I do about this, can I do anything, and why is this keeping me awake.

One of the parts of the movie Hotel Rwanda that bothers me the most is how the US and UK deliberately pulled all Americans and Europeans out of Rwanda to save them, and downplayed what was happening in Rwanda.  Now I know that there are two sides to both stories and the movie is obviously slanted one way, but there is a lot truth in their side.  If it was important enough to make a huge effort to pull all the Americans and Europeans out, it had to be of some significance.

What happened in Rwanda is considered by some to be worse than the holocaust because of how many people died in such a short time.  Then I came to a huge realization, this is happening to people all over the world everyday.  I don't just mean people dying in genocide, I mean to my neighbors, to my friends, to my family, to the lady I stand next to in the line at Walmart, to the teenager who messes my order up at Burger King, to kid annoying kid who asks so many questions, to the clerk at the DMV who hates her job because everyone hates the DMV, to the people I went to high school with that I don't keep up with.  They are being tormented, attacked, slaughtered, put down, beat up, and whatever other blank you can think of when you think of genocide.  I am referring to their spirits, the part of them that will experience eternity.

See, in Rwanda the pain was only for a short time when people were slaughtered.  Eventually that physical pain went away, but what happens to your spirit happens for eternity.  It doesn't end when your heart stops beating.  Satan is the rebel army who it out to steal, kill, and destroy.  There is a spiritual genocide happening everyday right in front of me, and I have one of two choices.

I can be like the US and UK, pulling back and saying its not that big of a deal, its not worth getting involved in.  Its too messy and political so we should not be a part of that, we need to take care of ourself first then maybe help them.  Do I think about making sure I take care of myself and make sure I have what I need while there is a massacre going on right in front of me.  Do I avoid using words like genocide and massacre because if I do I will be bound to taking certain action.  Do I minimize it and say its not really my fight, someone else should take care of it.

Or, do I see it like Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who nobody knew of.  Am I giving up my life so that others only get a chance at being saved, doing everything in my power to give every opportunity for others to experience the freedom I know is possible.  Am I sacrificing my life (my wants, my desires, my ambitions) so that other people can see Jesus Christ for who he is - the one who opposes the enemy and wants to bring hope, love, and abundant life to the spiritual refugees I run into everyday.  

I am reminded of the beginning of this post, I am at two extremes.  My head and my heart are on polar opposite sides of each other, and I am wrestling with what is right for me.  We are all called to do different things, God has created us specifically for certain purposes (Ephesians 2:10).

I must challenge myself to seek where my heart really is, am I pulling away and observing things from a distance, or am I right in the middle of the gun fire doing everything I can to help everyone I run into experience the love of Jesus.

The football game that was on tonight, it was supposed to be super, but it seems pretty insignificant to me right now.