This past weekend I was skyping with my parents when we started talking about all of the crazy stuff happening in the world right now. As we were considering the possibilities of what various people could do for help I felt a wave of hopelessness. How on earth can God redeem these situations. Some people want America to rush into Iraq and be the great white savior. I'm sorry, but I think we all know that hasn't worked in the past. I agree that something must be done, but I can't even conceive of a solution that would be ethical, wise, effective, biblical, and just. I wonder if anyone can. A thought came to me that the American way of thinking, the Western worldview, hasn't worked in the past in Iraq, so maybe there is a line of thought from a different cultural perspective that could help. Maybe the only ones who can truly help are believers from somewhere in Asia, Africa, or South America. Maybe it's time for a different worldview to take a stab at solving problems that people from my worldview just haven't been able to solve. I don't know what that would look like, but as I pray, I pray for godly leaders who seek truth and justice to stand up from a culture different from my own and be used by God to bring peace.
The other issues I mentioned at the beginning of this blog are more ongoing, and maybe even more complicated to solve. Ebola- do people stay and fight it or run to safety? Is there a cure to be found? There are both scientific and ethical questions to be solved, and I know I am not the one to solve them. But I also know that my parents in Cameroun may have to answer these questions for themselves if the virus spreads south to them. I pray for wisdom, health, and scientific breakthrough in the region being ransacked by this deadly disease.
Racial prejudice in America is so engrained I find it difficult to imagine a transformation of equality in the nation of my citizenship. It is such a multifaceted and deeply layered issue that again I feel paralyzed by the vastness of it. It's an issue I wish I could ignore, but while I have that luxury as a white woman I DO NOT have that option as a follower of Christ! I grew up in a world very different from the racial tension of the United States, and I have chosen not to live in that country with it's unique racial dynamics, but I still believe I have a responsibility, I'm just trying to figure out what it is from across the ocean.
I get exhausted from hearing Christians blindly supporting Israel no matter what they do to the Palestinians. Not that Palestine is innocent, but this basic premise that we must support Israel as Gods chosen people or out of some deep seated guilt for what happened during the Holocaust has got to go. I'm not saying we forget the atrocities of the Holocaust and how the world just let it happen for far too long (the reason we have to do something in Iraq, even though I don't know what), but I am saying that it doesn't give one nation a blank check for killing. I don't have a solution for the conflict in the Holy Land, but I do believe that we have to stop blindly supporting one group just because of their genetics. Talk about racial prejudice...
These are my musings. They are of course offensive to some. They may make me enemies, but they are the honest truth. I find myself easily crippled by hopelessness when I consider these and other (I did not even mention the issues that are more personal for me in Congo and CAR), and yet I know that my God is one of hope. It is too easy for Christians to stick our heads in the sand and say that Jesus is coming back soon and we will just wait it out. We can't do that. Christ came to redeem this world, and the gospel is on a trajectory of restoration NOT letting the world burn. So I refuse to stick my head in the sand. I also refuse to believe that I have all of the answers. I pledge to listen, to pray, to engage, and to hold onto the hope for mankind by the grace of God. I will pray that God will give me an opportunity to make a difference, even if that difference is simply to bring awareness to the people around me who are more able to truly help. But if it's something else, I pray that God would open my eyes to it. I pray that I would live as Christ, seek His truth, ask hard questions, and be willing to act when the time comes.
May God help me not to hide behind my words, and may he help you to do the same.
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