There was a terrorist attack this past weekend here in Kenya. About 15 men from Al Shabaab, a group associated with Al Qaida, entered into a large shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya (the capital city) heavily armed with guns and hand grenades. For 4 days, they sieged the mall and held hostages. Over 60 people have been killed and over 200 injured (and this isnt even the final count yet!).
Perhaps you might have seen this as a quick blurb on the local evening news, or maybe it only made it to the world news. Maybe it wasnt even broadcast on basic television but only televised on CNN. Im not really sure. Here, however, its been a 24/7 breaking news live report.
If I were back in the United States, I might have seen it. I might have given a quick thought to it, but then in a few minutes it would have been out of my mind again, never to return. Just like how the shooting in Washington DC or the bombing in Boston I heard about here on the Race (only because other Racers mentioned it), but I havent really given much thought at all to it.
Everyone on my Squad here in Kenya is safe. No one was near the mall when any of this happened, and our leaders here in the field along with the AIM staff in the home office back in the States are working closely for our safety as we finish out our last week here in Kenya and transition to Nepal next month.
But as I think about these events that have occurred, I have to reflect on my own personal reactions to all of this.
I think back to a good book I read recently about short-term mission trips. It talked about the difference in perspective between the Western church and the majority world church on how they approach short-term missions. It stood out to me when it said that the Western church often approaches short-term missions as a do-good, feel-good-about-yourself, experience-the-world-for-yourself, safe Christian vacation where you get to take pictures of yourself holding orphans, feeding the homeless, building a church, evangelizing, preaching, etc., but it is mainly about what you are going to gain from the trip. The majority world church, however, much more often recognized the very real possibility of being persecuted and even dying for your faith while out in the world doing the hard work of the Gospel.
Then I think about how this is the world we live in. I have been so protected in America from so much of these world tragedies, but even as safe and secure as I have felt in the States, hatred, crime, terror, tragedy still persists. In the U.S., I walk down the streets with no worry, but for the past 10 months around the world as I walk around town I am very aware of my surrounding: where my wallet is in my pocket, who is walking behind me, where everyone is in my group, how much attention we are drawing to ourselves, etc. But honestly, things could happen in the States just as much as they could anywhere else.
In my lifetime alone I have seen the OJ Simpson trial, 9/11, so many school shootings (elementary schools, high schools, colleges), hurricanes, tsunamis, oil spills, car accidents, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, bombings, air plane crashes (one that took one of my best friends from high school), violent murder and rape, abductions, and numerous other tragedies. I hear about these things on the news from time to time, but so often I dont let it personally affect me.
I am about 3 hours away from Nairobi, so I see the hostage situation on the news, but for me that is just as distant as 9/11 was while I was in my comfortable suburban home near Chicago or how I heard about the shootings in DC just a couple weeks ago but I am a few thousand miles away.
Maybe sometimes I would try to think about if I were in that shopping mall at that time. Well, Im prepared to die for my faith, so Im okay, right? The worst thing I could think of if I were there wasnt if I died but how hungry I would be being held captive for 4 days with probably no access to food, water, or bathrooms.
But then another thought occurred to me.
The pastor I am staying with has a son in Nairobi. What if he were in the mall? My own teammate whom I am living with was in that very mall just 3 days before the attackwhat if she, or any one of my other squadmates, were there?! I would be having a much different reaction!
Up to this point, Ive been thinking about myself. Ive been thinking about my own altruistic motives in missions, what my own reactions would be, etc. But this isnt about me. This is about the 60 plus people who have diedtheir families, their friends. This is about the more-than 200 people injured by gunfire, grenades, explosions, collapsed building, etc. This is about real people with real lives, real circumstances, real fears.
Not everyone has Jesus. Not everyone knows the comfort of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Not many of those people held up in fear, not the attackers. I dont even want to call them terrorists. Yes, it is true, they have caused great terror, and I do not for one second condone anything that they have done. But to call them terrorists almost seems to dehumanize them. It makes it easy to see them as the enemy, and to make me feel better about hating them or make me feel better about the little good things that I do.
But they are people too, just as trapped in their own sin, living out their own beliefs.
This is where Jesus says some pretty tough words: Love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you.
Love.
The same thing that Jesus did for us.
So today, I am going to live out my own beliefs. I chose love.
Im going to choose love, grace, mercy, and compassion.
Thats what I ask from Jesus;
thats what I need to give.
