The homepage on my computer is set on BBC World. Everyday for almost two weeks I've started my morning with fresh images of the suffering happening in Gaza. Sometimes I read up on the latest details of the conflict, but more and more I am tempted to zoom right along to my gmail account.
The history of the conflict is complex, but the suffering happening throughout each day and night is stunningly clear. 205 of the 600 Palestinians who have died so far in the conflict are children. Almost 3,000 Gazans have been injured, and the rest are striving to make do amid food, water, electrical, and medical shortages.
The Lord has blessed me far too richly for me to comprehend what that kind of suffering could feel like. It breaks my heart to know that, while I live a pleasant life thousands of miles away, so very many people are in utter terror. And this is the challenge I face: it seems as though I cannot bear to take on the grief that this situation merits. My culture peddles numbness--numbness through comfort, consumerism, or mere cluelessness.
Nothing frustrates me more than the claim that there has never been and will never be peace in the Middle East, and thus we shouldn't try to strive for peace there. The individual lives lost and impacted by the conflicts (on both sides) matter infinitely, and I know that, regardless of anything political, God is calling me to lament the terrible deaths of so many. He challenges me to grieve for the children who will now grow up horribly scarred. He makes me cry "remember mercy" to a place that seems so far from redemption.
And I can't do any of that if I am choosing numbness instead.
So for another day I will read the ever-worsening statistics, learn about another family torn apart, and a region in total need of peace. If you're looking for a good place to learn a little more about the conflict, my friend Micah is in Egypt right now, and has put a lot of thought and wisdom into some of his blog posts. You can access his blog through the link on the right.
The history of the conflict is complex, but the suffering happening throughout each day and night is stunningly clear. 205 of the 600 Palestinians who have died so far in the conflict are children. Almost 3,000 Gazans have been injured, and the rest are striving to make do amid food, water, electrical, and medical shortages.
The Lord has blessed me far too richly for me to comprehend what that kind of suffering could feel like. It breaks my heart to know that, while I live a pleasant life thousands of miles away, so very many people are in utter terror. And this is the challenge I face: it seems as though I cannot bear to take on the grief that this situation merits. My culture peddles numbness--numbness through comfort, consumerism, or mere cluelessness.
Nothing frustrates me more than the claim that there has never been and will never be peace in the Middle East, and thus we shouldn't try to strive for peace there. The individual lives lost and impacted by the conflicts (on both sides) matter infinitely, and I know that, regardless of anything political, God is calling me to lament the terrible deaths of so many. He challenges me to grieve for the children who will now grow up horribly scarred. He makes me cry "remember mercy" to a place that seems so far from redemption.
And I can't do any of that if I am choosing numbness instead.
So for another day I will read the ever-worsening statistics, learn about another family torn apart, and a region in total need of peace. If you're looking for a good place to learn a little more about the conflict, my friend Micah is in Egypt right now, and has put a lot of thought and wisdom into some of his blog posts. You can access his blog through the link on the right.
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