More than one-third of the country of Sierra Leone has been quarantined due to the Ebola virus.. They cannot move freely. Just yesterday an additional million were quarantined.
I read about this at Aljazeera.com. It's hard to believe, and even harder to come to grips with on a heart level. These sorts of things seem to bounce past us as commonly as any other passing comment.
"Have you heard about everything going on in Sierra Leone and other parts of Africa? Just yesterday over a million people were newly quarantined."
"Yeah, I've heard. It's really sad."
"Yeah."
…
"Do you think you'd be willing to trade me Carson Palmer in our fantasy football league?"
I have no beef with fantasy football. My bristling is at our complete unwillingness to even allow the suffering of the world to move us--both to tears and to action.
Our inability to be present in the world's pain just may be the most shameful thing about the vast majority of Christians. We unconsciously won't even allow ourselves to be emotionally present in the pain, let alone emotionally and physically.
Maybe we are the ones that are quarantined? We are trapped in our own devices and leisures and hobbies and patterns while pain runs rampant across the globe. We are stuck in the brokenness of our small thinking amidst a humanity crying bitterly. We discuss trivialities and seek out new and fresh ways to entertain, while across the globe ISIL continues their beheadings.
What can free us? What could give us ears to hear those that are crying, that we may enter into their lives and bring about peace, reconciliation, and even joy? What could turn our stone hearts into real beating fleshly ones once more, allowing us to weep as bitterly for a trapped and hurting Africa as for our own suffering? Is there any hope?
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