The Greater Tragedy

The earthquake in Haiti this last week has given us one more opportunity to see the church - the people of God - mobilize and stand quickly to come to the aid of those in need. You really see what people are made of when crisis and disaster strike. We saw this with Hurricane Katrina, with the tornado that hit Greensburg, Kansas, and the tsunami a few years ago. Even during this shaky and turbulent economic time, people step up. And shouldn't this always be the case? But as I've been burdened by this over the last week and prayed, "Lord, what can I do?" I have begun to sense this haunting message that He keeps whispering back to me: "What about the BIGGER disaster?"

I shouldn't really wonder why the images from Haiti shake me to the core - or be confused by the stirring and outpouring of aid and help that comes at a time like this. But what I wonder about is why this sense of urgency and disaster doesn't overwhelm me on a daily basis knowing that people all around me are desperately in need of Jesus Christ. Seriously - do I believe what scriptures tells me? Do I believe Peter when he declares that "the end of all things in near"? And what about the fact that Christ made it clear that when "the Good News about the Kingdom of God is preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it" that THEN "finally, the end will come"? Do we think Jesus was just talking to hear his head rattle? Would He make this sort of claim just to raz us - get our attention - to only drop the "Just kidding!" bomb on us later? No.

Why are we not daily wrecked by the lost? Why do I sit in a restaurant more concerned with the service of the waiter than his salvation? And I know that meeting people's needs - being the "hands and feet" of Christ - reaching out and serving the "least of these" - is part of bringing the Kingdom of God wherever I go. But is it not also announcing that Jesus Christ died on a bloody cross for the sins of the world and is the only way to find salvation and peace and redemption? 

Is it a greater tragedy that someone died in Haiti who will be eternally separated from their Creator and Redeemer? Or is it a greater tragedy that someone lives next door to you (or me), works in the cubicle next to you, sits in the bleachers at your kids game with you, walks through this life with you...not knowing their Creator and Redeemer...and we just don't care? What is the greater tragedy?

If we are moved and changed and wrecked by the Gospel - by the love and salvation found in Jesus Christ - it's time to prove it! This story I'm writing called MY LIFE - I want it to be filled with risks and laughs and faith and failures...but NOT tragedy. Especially not the tragedy of opportunity lost and words left unsaid. 

What story are you writing?