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Challenge 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07

Challenge.01
Read the front page of today’s newspaper and pray for one of the many disasters going on in the international community. Start with these staggering statistics: There are 2.5 million displaced refugees in Darfur. 60,000+ people have died in China’s Chengdu quake. The estimated death toll in Myanmar has climbed to 100,000. More than 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa. Do this challenge daily!

Response.02 - Christina H.

My first response to reading all these things about the crisis in Myanmar is anger, though I think that's pretty much my first response to lots of things in life.

I'm furious with the Junta. Who do they think they are? How did they become such heartless idiots, consumed by the power and control they hope to maintain in the face of such tragedy to their own people? Why can't they see what hypocrites they are, stubbornly refusing aid and then criticizing countries for not contributing more? Who are they to say that people in the most remote places can make it without foreign aid? Why does national pride trump people in need?

I've examined my anger more closely though. Probably because if I just ranted about that, my blog entry would have nothing to do with mercy. And I think it's easier for me to be angry at the injustices surrounding a situation than for me to feel mercy for those who are oppressed in it. After all, would they be in that place if the society around them was just? What's more, it's easier for my heart to be incensed than for it to break.

The Good Samaritan simply followed the urge in his heart to care for this stranger. He did not weigh the possible consequences of the actions he was about to take. He just did it. And he followed through thoroughly. I, however, become more and more jaded as I think about the effects of my potential response of mercy. Will my good intentions be thwarted by convoluted systems of bureaucracy? Will this person even receive my resources with the desire to use them well? Should I only give when I'm guaranteed that it will be an effective gift? And to what end? Does that even matter?

And it ends up being paralysis by analysis; I do nothing. Except get angry. What needs to change in me so that mercy comes alongside this reaction to injustice? And I am moved by compassion as Jesus always is? The start of a journey is always riddled with more questions than answers.

Read Response.01

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