Here’s a short piece written by Matt Smith – Antioch’s Mission’s Pastor.
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[Response to tragedy is always a fascinating thing. People argue and complain and blame, and that’s fine, but one thing that should never happen is indifference. I have seen both positive and negative responses this last week, so this was written to encourage the people of Haiti, the people of the United States and anyone, for that matter, who believes they suffer alone.]
Dear Haiti,
You will hear it said over the coming weeks from many people who know little about you that it is best to keep American money in America. You will hear that we are struggling in the US to keep our heads above water and our capacity to give you ‘aid’ drown long ago. Many of us here have somehow grown accustomed to mistaking inconvenience for injustice, so we will shake our fists at your needs because they challenge our luxuries.
You will hear it said once and echoed a thousand times that you are cursed by supernatural powers. Some time ago, the story goes, you made a pact with the devil and now you walk a cursed ground. Many of us have forgotten that grace has given us what we’ve come to demand so we will answer your suffering with indifference. We will use our sense of entitlement to justify our excuses.
You will hear it said that it is your responsibility to pull yourself up out of this tragedy by your very own bootstraps. We will say this because many of us have come to believe in the self-made man. But, ironically, we will say this failing to notice that you are barefoot on the soil with your boots buried beneath a cityscape of debris.
You will hear it said that there is no hope for Haiti. Logic says you’ve had a good shake at freedom and equality and justice and stability but you’re just not cut from the same fabric as the rest of us. We say things like that because many of us have progressed so far and so fast we have little time for patience. We tend to think of priorities as things that make money and we forget about things like people.
To many of us here, Haiti is not a home and it is not a heartbeat; it is just a place we once learned about long ago on a map in a classroom. So we have kept you far from our thoughts and even farther from our hearts. We have neglected to understand that Haiti is how you came into the world and came to know of the world. We have forgotten that you – Haiti – are part of OUR world.
You will hear many things. Ignorant things. Selfish things. Arrogant things. Painful things. When you do, and you will, know this: as the earth was shaking the ground beneath your feet and the landscape of your life changed forever, God was busy shaking the dust from many hearts long unused for empathy. Images of your homes collapsed and condemned streamed into our homes and many of our hearts broke. Our eyes teared. Our hands fell open and our hope asked out loud, “Is there anything we can do, big or small, to let you know we are with you?”
Many of us want you to know – we are with you, Haiti. We are not you, we are very much different, but we are very much the same. Were it our ground that opened up and swallowed our world whole we would hurt just the same, so we hurt with you. Were it our lungs short with breath and our hearts pained with fear we would tremble just the same, so we tremble with you. Were it our families scattered in the noxious scene we would hold to hope just the same, so we hope with you.
What you hear you will hear. My prayer is that what you see will affirm the better side of humanity – the side that knows indifference, not defeat, is the opposite of victory. We are with you. We are here with all the strength of God’s love and we will give what we can to make you strong.
Hold fast, Haiti, and hold on to hope.
Convicting stuff. He speaks Just like he writes…… you almost don’t want to read/hear what he is going to say next cause it’s gonna hurt. Bring on the hurt Chan, we all need it, I know I do.