don’t panic

The last few weeks have shown me more about humanity and Christianity than many years pervious. The earthquake in Haiti provided a unique view into a side of the church that we don’t get to see very often. It was present during Katrina, and again with the tsunami in Indonesia, and honestly, I can say that it’s a side of the church that makes me want to vomit with rage.

Why, as Christians, do we suddenly feel compelled to help a people during a disaster, that we couldn’t have given a damn about a week earlier?

There’s a literal epidemic of people, well-meaning and completely sincere people, who suddenly feel led by God to go to an island nation which they had nothing at all to do with before that moment, to try and help people that have nothing, literally nothing, save for what they can pull out of the rubble around them.

But why? Why would God wait until now to put these people into your heart? Why would he wait until AFTER they have been devastated to send help? Is it a prerequisite of salvation that we be days from death, or that every last possession in our home, and our home itself, be laid waste? Certainly I can see the theological debates running on that one, but now ask yourself, has God dictated that we are to be destitute? Has He said that you can have no happiness or earthly goods while we wait for his coming?

Why go to Haiti? What will you do there? Are you a doctor? They need doctors. Are you a trained aid worker? Do you know the local language, or are you going to need someone to interpret every last thing, from the dire pleading of a woman to help dig her dead child out of the remains of her house, to the directions to the temporary latrine.

Why go to Haiti? Are you a construction worker? They might need those… in six months. No one is rebuilding anything yet. No one has any money. No one has much of anything.

Why go to Haiti? Are you going to join the crowd of other reporters chronicling the pain and suffering of the destitute? Is it your “mission” to show the world how horrible total destruction is, shoving a camera into the face of a grieving mother or a wide angle shot of the bodies piled by the road? Will you write about God’s awesome love and grace amid the wailing and screaming at night? Will you share stories of hope to those like you, safe back at home, or will you write for the people of Port-au-Prince?

Why go to Haiti? Are you going to minister to the people, tell them about God?… The God that just leveled their entire life and killed most of their friends and family. Will they understand you, or will your alien words and clean clothes simply mock their situation?

Why go to Haiti? Are you planning on helping needy children? Will you offer to watch the crying child of a mother who needs to go stand in line for food and water? What will you do if she doesn’t come back?

Do you think you can offer people hope? Hope of what? That perhaps they can leave their home and come to yours, you rich and prosperous rescuer. Can you offer them safety? Are you better prepared to defend them than the legions of trained and armed military who now walk the streets?

Has God really called you? Has he whispered to you quietly, urging you to go blindly to a nation you have never before seen? Is it sudden? Did He ask you to get round trip tickets, or did he say, “GO THERE. I’ll let you know when you come back, if ever.”

He certainly didn’t use a still, small voice when he flattened Port-au-Prince.

If it’s not God speaking clearly to us to give up EVERYTHING, pack up our tent, and MOVE to Haiti, I have to wonder if it’s God we hear, or someone else. Perhaps even our own guilt, at having so much when so many who had so little are the ones God chooses to bring His wrath down upon.

There were over three million people in Port-au-Prince. There are significantly less now. But, it’s estimated that during any given year there are 3.5 million people homeless right here in the United States; 842,000 in any given week. Most have little or no property. Are they any less deserving of our attention? Is their need any less important than the people of Haiti before or after the quake? Does God care less about them because they happen to live under the bridge near your home? Is their “disaster” any less significant?

There ARE people called to Haiti, by God, or because it’s their job. The people of Port-au-Prince need help to be sure. But so do millions of people right in our backyard. You don’t have to wait for God to destroy a city in order to help people.