Monday, July 13, 2009

Questions of the Heart

The people I see are not hopeless. Many work hard, hoping that if nothing else, they might provide a way for their children to escape from this place. Other just refuse to be downcast, relying on God for their joy, hoping against hope that he will deliver them in some way. I have seen others with much more than these people have wallowing in self pity, hopeless. One does not truly understand what it is to be stuck in an endless cycle of defeat until one has witnessed a slum in a third world country. Our homeless at least have clean streets and access to public restrooms that are not merely holes in the ground, more often than not, overflowing with the contents of human excrement. There are government sponsored programs that give them enough money to keep themselves fed, and there are other organizations, like local churches, which provide relief from their hardships. These people have none of that. Every day is a struggle to survive, and life or death mean little to most of the inhabitants.

There are never going be reasons enough why suffering exists. Why a mother should live to see her children killed when their home collapses on them, and rescuers are unable to reach them. Or why children should live in abusive homes, suffering physical, verbal, and sexual abuse from their own parents. Or why an innocent victim of rape dies slowly of AIDS. But neither is there ever going to be a good enough reason for why Jesus died on the cross. God took upon himself the suffering of a willfully broken world. He experienced the fullness of the weight of our own foolish rebellion, resulting in death, the death of Jesus Christ, God’s son. God’s son! I do not have any children, but I know myself well enough to say without a doubt that I would never intentionally allow harm to befall my child, and I would have extraordinary difficulty in forgiving anyone who did cause him harm, never mind welcoming such a person as my own child.
-Bethany

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