Since I was born in North America at this time and not in, ohhhh say, Rwanda or Darfur or in abject poverty does that mean that I get to grow up be a "good" person. Live a "nice" life? Raise a "nice" family? Buy LOTS of "nice" stuff? Be a REALLY "nice" neighbor? I don't know maybe that means believing in God, maybe it doesn't. Maybe it just means being a moral person. Perhaps it means being a good parent and raising contributing members to MY society. Whatever it means to you...and then I raise my children to be the same and they raise their children to be the same...you get the picture. It's a nice little cycle of patting ourselves on the back and saying "well done me!" And all the time the orphans, the widows, the poor...the people for whom all my wealth (and YES I am extremely wealthy compared to them) do not benefit one bit from me having been born. Their lives are left untouched.
What happens (just for ONE example of the many) if you are born into a Tutsi family and were alive in Rwanda at the time of the genocide there in 1994? You know that genocide that all of us were alive for but we couldn't decide what to call it and therefore didn't step and stop it...the UN bickered about a term to call what was happening in a completely stoppable genocide (I THINK we were the ones who said "never again" after Hitler...) for oh at least 4 MONTHS 800,000 people were hacked to death with machetes...so by virtue of birth their lives were rendered meaningless while my middle class life was going very nicely...thank you very much and therefore MY life was of high value...it seems. For I was allowed to live...by virtue of birth.
OR could it be that by virtue of birth I was put here so that I could be Christ's Ambassador.
Why do innocent people suffer? Well in part...
The Bible says that God has given this world over to Satan. 1 John 5:19 says, " We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one" We live in a fallen world. Satan is master. God will not step in until that day...that final day of Judgement. A true judge always judges completely, fully and fairly. When we ask "God why did you allow...whatever?" What we are really saying is God be my puppet on a string and judge what I want judged. When Jesus comes again He WILL judge totally (Rev. 19:14-16) ... In the mean time, according to the Bible, we (who believe the Bible and in Jesus) are supposed to be Christ's Ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:16-20). We understand that term very well...We have all sorts of Ambassadors in our governments. To give you the context...2 Corinthians 5 says this:
"1-5For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we'll never have to relocate our "tents" again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.
6-8That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.
9-10But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that's what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we'll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what's coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.
11-14That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It's no light thing to know that we'll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That's why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God. God alone knows how well we do this, but I hope you realize how much and deeply we care. We're not saying this to make ourselves look good to you. We just thought it would make you feel good, proud even, that we're on your side and not just nice to your face as so many people are. If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.
A New Life 14-15Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
16-20Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.
21How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. "
So if I believe the Bible as I say I do...that means that my so called "privilege of birth" is for a purpose...you know....if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time...that Shaun and I are pursuing a way to raise awareness of literal slavery in our present day world (27 million people...by virtue of birth...). I was thinking 2 days ago about how the majority of people get into slavery...poverty! That is the bottom line for the majority who become enslaved. Disease isn't the only side effect to poverty.
I heard this one story of a Ukrainian woman (present day...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mluvE3C_HnA&mode=related&search there are several parts to this PBS Frontline) who's family lives near Chernobyl. Her sister has tumors on her face, her brother's appendix ruptured, she has children to care for. They borrowed money to try and pay for the medical bills. The lender called in the debt. So she went to the city with a "trusted" acquaintance...who sold her into the "rape for profit" business. Were she was kept was raided. She was deported back home. Her young brother was dying (from the ruptured appendix I believe...rotting from the inside out) so she went back to that same city in Turkey, this time as a prostitute...the brothel was raided...she was sent home...still had a sick sister but her brother died...they still owed the debt. Do you know how much money they owed? $200! $200? I can blow $200 in about 10 seconds with a purchase...or even a really REALLY nice dinner or a semi nice outfit. For $200 she went through all that. Poverty! There are millions of stories (at LEAST 27 million) like that. So does that mean that their lives have less value? That it's their problem? Let's walk on by shall we?!
In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus talks about "that day"...the end of time... when life is over...when we stand before our Judge. This is what Jesus said:
31-33"When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left.
34-36"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me.'
37-40"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
41-43"Then he will turn to the 'goats,' the ones on his left, and say, 'Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because— I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, Sick and in prison, and you never visited.'
44"Then those 'goats' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?'
45"He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.'
46"Then those 'goats' will be herded to their eternal doom, but the 'sheep' to their eternal reward."
I tend to believe the Bible...I mean I take it literally. So I can't just walk on by any more...but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord by serving the overlooked. Shaun and I have purposed to make a path for our children so that when they go down this path they will have even more tools to accomplish this mandate. It will be an easier trail, this one of caring for the poor, the orphans, and widows. They will have seen it all their lives. At the end of this movie we just watched one of the survivors says something like "we are blessed...we've been given more time...what will we do with it?"
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