compassion.

i've been thinking about what the appropriate response would be to the current crisis in japan, or any other event like it.

it's difficult, because a part of you might eagerly wish to be able to go and help right away, and your inability can make you feel useless and apprehensive. yet there is the conflicting understanding that we are just one being, that God doesn't need me specifically to do His work. it takes a level of faith and humility to be at ease and trust in the providence of God to be at work, even without our participation. but this can cripple our compassion and cause us to detach ourselves from the situation and not be moved into any action at all.

there is also the division amongst people about why it happens. some say it's God's wrath and judgment upon a people, others just hope it can be an opportune door towards a spiritual awakening. some are afraid to involve God at all, brushing it off as a work of nature, independent of any influential force.


sometimes things like this overwhelm me, but one thing is for certain:

i was at school, walking to the library. it seemed like every japanese student at our school was out there, trying to gather funds to donate to the crisis. passersby were giving here and there, but as i neared the library there were two men, both picket-preachers, arguing intensely about their beliefs, condemning each other.. and they had attracted a massive crowd, mostly amused by and mocking the pathetic sight of two preachers fighting and delegitimizing each other in the process. and as soon as i walked passed the crowd, there was yet another group trying to gather funds for japan. but they were like ghosts, eclipsed by the draw of the arguing preachers.
i couldn't help but feel embarrassed. there was something bigger and more important at hand, but people were more interested in listening to people fighting, just for the sake of ridiculing them. many Americans' sympathies were quickly overtaken, being more concerned about the possibility of a similar disaster happening to us. apathy. self-centeredness. it's just a fragment of the epidemic in our privileged nation.


we need compassion. we need empathy. we need to literally feel for the pains of others just as Jesus did. it's a product of love. and out of that, we need to act in love and be faithful to whatever opportunity God gives us, even if it's just donating money. what we think God's intentions are is irrelevant. we're just called to live out His love, and that is through the laying down of our lives.. and that does not just entail death. to step into someone else's shoes, to consider others before oneself, and to understand that what we do unto them, Jesus takes personally... and even then, we must also understand that it is not just for physical needs we must gain compassion for, but for the lost. that we would mourn more for the souls that were lost more than those who lost their material possessions. You did not mourn for Job, but You ran after the lost sheep. open our eyes God, and open our hearts. to Your kingdom.