The Squeeze of Our Culture

It's a lazy day for me, the first day of my husband's spring break from the University. I'm sitting by the warm, fire and reading and writing with a spirit of thanksgiving and prayer. I am one of the few people on the earth that has enough. I am warm and full from a nourishing breakfast. I have experienced, just this morning, the comfort from a warm cup of very good coffee. I should be happy, but my heart still aches for the many children in Ethiopia who need parents. I am fighting to keep remembering these babies and children when everything within my culture screams to forget. In my US world, I grew up believing that it was my right to not only embrace but acquire "the American Dream." I remember as a young mother, yearning for the day I had a dishwasher and a second car. I believed that God wanted to bless me with a nice house and comfort. But now that I've traveled throughout the world and experienced the pain and suffering of others, my soul is stirred to the quick.

Jesus says the poor will always be with me. He knows the impact of sin on His creation. That said, we, the rich by the world's standards, are truly called to do more than we, as American Christians, are currently doing in the world. While we are good at responding to emergencies like helping our brothers and sisters in Haiti or now Japan, we are not so good at doing the things that might impact our lives for the kingdom. I'm speaking to myself here too. I find that I don't really want to do the hard work of downsizing my life financially. Yet so much of my time is spent in the caring for my material possessions. In Ethiopia last week, my friend Stephne, who oversees three orphanges, lost a little girl who came to the orphanage greatly malnourished. She arrived too late and they couldn't save her. Right after she died, the orphanage received yet one more rescued baby, abandoned by her father after her mother died in childbirth. This happens nearly every week. When you hold these little ones, the problem is very real. When you kiss their little, sweet heads and rock them to sleep, you can't imagine the pain and suffering associated with their abandonment. They are real babies. I learned in Ethiopia, this last time, that abandoned babies have characteristics unlike babies who bond immediately with the parents. Abandoned babies have huge, fearful eyes and they flail far more often than normally bonded babies. I was able to be at the orphanage long enough to see one of these little baby boys calm down, gain weight and sleep peacefully. My arms long for one of those babies to hold and my heart breaks for the almost unfathomable problem of orphans in Africa. If you hold a baby this week, will you step out of your cultural responsibilities and the rat race and pray for the babies in Ethiopia...the so many babies that need people to love and hold them ? Pray that God will break through and that the Ethiopian government will find a good solution.