Christian up

Is this a picture of a couple of little terrorists?

I can’t put words into the mouths of these two children. A colleague of mine snapped their photo at a temporary shelter for Pakistani flood victims today. I don’t know what they are thinking or anything about their story.

I doubt however that they are thinking of ways to blow up America.

Here’s the scoop:  Floods are nasty. Unless a dam breaks, they come upon you slowly. The community hems and haws about whether they should stay or go. If they go and it doesn’t flood, their belongings are up for grabs. If they are farmers, their crops and livestock may disappear at the hands of looters. The stress level must be enormous in the days leading up to the arrival of the flood waters.

If you get caught in a flood, the water isn’t exactly pristine. It’s filled with filth. People in these areas only have one set of clothes. There’s no water to do laundry. If it’s rainy and humid nothing will dry on the line.

What would I be thinking?

–When can I take a bath?

–How are we going to find food?

–Why are mommy and daddy so angry/silent/withdrawn?

–Did I do something bad that that made God punish me and my family?

Aid is trickling in for the Pakistan flood, which is affecting more people than were affected by the mother-of-all disasters, the December 2004 Asian tsunami.  An older child may be aware of the outpouring of help for Haiti. We know that unrestrained compassion is possible. But why withhold it from Pakistan?

I’ve heard far, far too many people say, “Because they don’t deserve it. Look at their record. They blow things up, they kill people, they hate Jesus.” (Who are “they,” anyway?  These two kids?)

I’m sure glad Jesus didn’t take into account whether I deserved it when He went to the cross for me.

Christian up, Church. Take action.

Reality check

I’ve been reading David McCullough’s 1776, a thoughtful and fact-packed analysis of the US Revolutionary War.    We’ve all heard how poorly supplied and trained the US forces were. McCullough reproduces various letters from eyewitnesses lamenting that troops were dirty, dumb, undisciplined and lacking even basic fighting tools. (At one point, due to gunpowder shortages, the troops were given spears to fight with. Spears.)

The discussion of the dire situation of the troops is a parenthesis, really, in McCullough’s description of Gen. George Washington’s character.   These sentences caught my eye:

“In truth, things were worse than they realized, and no one perceived this as clearly as Washington.  Seeing things as they were, and not as he would wish them to be, was one of his salient strengths.” (p 70)

It’s as American as apple pie to be a visionary.  And Washington was vision-driven, no doubt. But he evidently knew how to keep himself from the despair of measuring where he was at the time, and where we wanted to be.  Is reality checking a discipline?  It will be interesting to practice this in the coming days.  What if I truly asked God to show me what was real, instead of inventing all the possible ways life could go wrong?  What if I asked God to help me figure out the real problems?