It's been a while since my last post and there is so much to catch up on. But this post is not for that so you'll have to wait for another day. This post is about a story I saw on the news that I feel hanging heavily over me tonight. I've added a link to the story below and I would encourage you to watch the video or read the article before you continue reading my words.
Red Cross mobilizing to help Attawapiskat (video and article)
There are a lot of people whose basic needs aren't being met in Africa, in Asia, in Central America...all over the world. So often my eyes and heart look far away for needs that are not being met. And yet, here they are waiting for me to open my eyes to what is happening in my own country.
How can people to live in conditions akin to the developing world within one of the richest nations of the world? Where war and famine cannot be immediately blamed.
I sometimes hear blame being shifted to governments and history and corruption and religion....
It's much easier to point a finger than it is to look inside your own heart and feel your own shame. I'm not saying that these problems don't stem from hurt and corruption and all these other things, but I don't know enough to comment on the root of this news story and it's not what I'm struggling with tonight. This is what I'm writing about: my own weakness and imperfection, not anyone else's. Because even though one person may not be able to fix the hurt in the world, one person can change how they interact with the world around them.
I ask myself am I looking around and seeing all people for who they are? They are people who are imperfect; who deserve and need clean water, healthy food, and a warm safe place to sleep. But most of all they are people who need and deserve others to love them and to tell them that even though they are imperfect they are valuable. Am I seeing people, and am I serving them?
This story breaks my heart because it is not just one story, it is a representative of many stories...and because if I am honest with myself I have known this heartbreak existed and I did nothing. Maybe I didn't know the specifics, but I haven't been searching for them...
So I ask myself, will I change this time? Will the tears that welled up in my eyes today feel like the distant past tomorrow or cause fresh ones to take their place?
Can I be shaken out of the complacency of a comfortable life?
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