Friday, January 15, 2010

Why now? (And, why NOT now?)

Something I'm thinking about today is all the attention focused on Haiti since the earthquake happened. Lots of time and money and prayers invested, thinking about these precious men, women and children...we've been shaken from our usual complacency. That's a good thing. Maybe.

See Haiti wasn't really on most people's radar screens before this earthquake happened. But it was hurting. And incredibly impoverished. Countless orphans waiting for families. People dying of what should be preventable causes. Many hungry and starving. God sees these things all the time, but we only see them when we want to. Or when the media tells us to look. (I will again recommend Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains. It's awesome.)

If we care about the vulnerable children of Haiti, let's really DO something. After we send our money to Red Cross, let's pursue an adoption of a waiting child somewhere in the world. Or become a foster parent. Or give away a bunch of money to build a well somewhere. Or commit to permanently downsizing something in our life in order to continue giving to Haiti, even after CNN has stopped talking about it.

I'm wondering if our hearts start becoming numb to people and tragedies, if we simply endure one media frenzy after another, give a few bucks, and then go right back to our lattes and iphones and "reality" TV shows?

Sorry if I sound cynical. I'm thankful that the world is focused on Haiti right now. I feel so sad for Haiti, but some of that sadness is over the fact that it's taken their capital city getting obliterated for the world to take notice of their situation. (Of course I know that any time there is a major natural disaster, attention will shift there, and that IS a good thing.)

Guess I just wanted to remind everyone, including myself, that there are kids sitting around all over the world today waiting for families. There are hungry women unable to feed their babies, there are families struggling to survive in refugee camps. Instead of despairing or just wringing our hands, we can do something. And we should.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree, I have been thinking the same thing. Its so easy to ignore whats going on in other less privileged places and carry on with our easy lifestyles! Hope this disaster brings some more attention to those who need it. By the way I love your blog - I have been reading for ages and thought i would stop lurking!

Charity Hildebrand said...

Amen, preach it sister :)

Monica said...

Brianna, I was just thinking the same thing today. Most likely, in three months, the world's attention will be turned somewhere else while the people of Haiti continue to suffer and struggle to rebuild their lives. What happens then? What about all of the disrupted adoptions? What about all of the newly orphaned children? What happpens to them? More importantly what can we do.

There is suffering and poverty in every corner of the globe, but perhaps Haiti has been pushed to the forefront for a reason?

Thank you for your thoughts.

Monica

Amanda in NC said...

I totally completely agree with you. I heard a statistic this week that said if only 8% of professing Christians took care of one impoverished child, EVERY single child would be taken care of until adulthood. I know you're not writing specifically about children, but I can only imagine one can pull similar statistics for people in poverty as a whole. That's 8% of Christians alone, too...not to mention the billions of other faiths and people of no faith.

In any case, THANK YOU for this post - it was awesome and very needed.

The Hattons... said...

AMEN!!

Thank you for this post!

darci said...

Amen! I was so ...annoyed, discouraged, upset??..today when the headline on my default web page was "can you marriage survive an affair..why do married men pay for s#x". Honestly? Who cares? The situation in Haiti ranked a tiny little listing farther down on the page..that is how long it takes us to move on. sigh.

Jim and April said...

amen! agree! Thanks for this! Coming over from another blog! we're adopting from uganda right now!

Cindy said...

I love this post, can I link it on my blog?

 

Blog Template by YummyLolly.com