There's a story from my high school World History class that has haunted my heart for years. After WWII when the concentration camps were liberated, soldiers went into the surrounding villages nearby to inquire about what had been going on. The townspeople most often responded that they weren't aware that there was a camp so close by. Someone in my class asked my teacher how they could just not know that the concentration camp was a mile away when there were people being tortured, bodies were being burned, and horrors beyond imagination were taking place. Surely they must have seen, heard, or smelled something in all those years?! My teacher responded that sometimes things can be so horrific that one's mind simply shuts out the idea that it is even a possibility. I've heard of the same thing happening with a mother whose husband is abusing her daughter. All the signs and symptoms are present, but the thought of that going on is too terrible for her mind to even entertain that thought.
My pastor, Matt Chandler, has made a point of brining up the hot topics of our day and age in his sermons. Racial reconciliation and abortion are two regular occurrences in his speaking. He's often tied the two together through the question that plagues a lot of our hearts toward older relatives regarding the 50's and 60's during the civil rights movement: "Where were you and what were you doing to help?" That very same question is one he feels will arise with this next generation regarding abortion. Where were we and what were we doing to help as innocent babies were slaughtered by the millions?! When I think about the refugee crisis the same thought comes to mind. As thousands upon thousands of people are being displaced world wide every day, people are being murdered in cold blood in their homes in dozens of countries, grandmothers and small children are being forced to sleep in the freezing rain and mud, and the horrifying list goes on endlessly.... where are we and what are we doing to help??
There are many times when I start to think and try to imagine what it tangibly means that close to 60 million people in the world have no home right now. My mind wants to block it out, pretend that it's not real. To not think about winter moving in. To not put myself in their shoes. To decide that it's too big of an issue, and I'm just one person so there's no point in doing anything. My flesh wants to do all these things, but "true religion is this: to look after the widow and orphan in their distress..." (James 1:27) If I say I love God and don't love my brother, I am a liar (1 John 4:8,20). I cannot turn my back on these things! I cannot choose ignorance!
Jesus is calling, beckoning you to come lay down your life, your comfort, your selfishness, your safety, your money for Him by loving the least of these. Will you obey? Or when our children's children look back on this will you be someone from a nearby place claiming you didn't know?
