As we approach lunchtime on Friday, I’m feeling a bit.. overwhelmed. It seems like the world is just on a negative path, and we are getting overloaded with deep painful news. Two of the top news articles on my morning news countdown this morning was the situation in Afghanistan and in Haiti.
Just to pick a random starting point, in Haiti, as you know, there has been recent political unrest due to the assassination of the President of Haiti. A week ago, there was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the country, killing over 2000 people and leaving an untold number homeless. If that wasn’t enough, there was a tropical storm this week, that hit the island. The need is just indescribable.
“Many accounts that we’re hearing in the Les Cayes area is that almost half of the city is destroyed,” he said. “So we have many homes that are down, many people are, right now, don’t know where their loved ones are. So it’s a state of somewhat chaos and trying just to figure out what to do next.”
Brad Johnson, President, Mission of Hope
On the other side of the world, everyone will have heard about what is going on in Afghanistan. For some time now, thanks to a more secular leadership, Christians and other minority groups (although facing localized persecution) have been tolerated. With the overthrow of the secular government, the Taliban is expected to institute Shariah law.
Under Shariah law, the apostate must be put to death. Apostasy is so loosely defined as to cover anything considered by far right religious leaders as “heresy” or blasphemy, which is pretty much any declaration other than Sunni theology. This means pretty much any religious minority is a target. These blasphemy laws have been used against ethnic minorities to undertake ethnic cleansing as well.
This is an urgent issue in Afghanistan. The Taliban have spoken of tolerance (out of the great grace of their lovely hearts, they will allow girls to go to school!). But uncontrovertible reports make it clear that this is just honeyed words and will not translate to any type of actual tolerance.
How can we remain unmoved by this! We are surrounded by such deep need, it is easy to curl up and just focus inwardly on our comfortable life. But this is the time to be engaging in prayer and action to help those in need. Our lives are meant to be in service to others.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
I sometimes feel overwhelmed and at a loss for what I can do to change the world especially when the need is halfway around the world. We’ve spoken before about financial support to meet the need, and physically volunteering and providing for those needs, but I also wanted to remind us of one thing.
We may not be able to change the situation in Afghanistan, but that situation exists because evil men have influenced others to their cause. There is a parallel though. We each of us, have our own spheres of influence. It is too easy to stop doing anything, because nothing that we do will have global impact.
But we each can have an impact to our own little spheres of influence – at our workplaces, at restaurants and cafes, schools, wherever we interact with others. If we inject kindness into our interactions, even where we deserve something better (think when a server messes up your order), I believe those things will resonate. It resonates through our sphere of influence into those around us.
If there is a critical mass of people doing what is right (and what is right is what is right, regardless of your background!), then we can create a pocket of goodness to counter the evil in this world.
I encourage you to seed the world with kindness today. Check your tongue of harsh words, speak life, encouragement and strength to those around you. Give up what you deserve, and take up the burdens of others today. Before the end of the day do something kind to someone around you. Continue that daily and I truly believe we can make an impact on this cruel world.
Also, here are some links for financial support for these two areas!
AG World Missions Afghanistan (this relief work is not limited to Christians but to all in need!) : https://www.agwm.org/news/article/urgent-intercession-for-afghanistan
Mission of Hope Haiti (check the immediate needs section) : https://missionofhope.com/haiti-earthquake