This is to my fellow Christian. I can’t hold a nonbeliever to this standard of empathy and love; for if God is love; and you don’t know God, how then can you begin to love in this kind of sacrificial way. If all apathy, indifference, and the cruelty of the passive blind eye melted away; would the worlds problems vanish? Institutionalized tragedies such as human trafficking, world hunger, pornography, sex tourism, industrial slavery, the grip of suicide and depression racking our youth’s education systems. The vicious cycle of uneducated and illiterate people groups, injustice in the business of prison systems, the neglecting of orphans.. the list goes on. If we saw people as people instead of a distant reality that is almost impossible to grasp, might this spark a shred of emotional attachment? I’ve heard this my whole life, “put yourself in someone else’s shoes”. Allow yourself to feel the gravity of this, it hurts and it’s uncomfortable, you might even catch yourself falling into apathy and indifference to combat this emotion; empathy.
If all apathy, indifference, and the cruelty of the passive blind eye melted away; would the worlds problems vanish? Institutionalized tragedies such as human trafficking, world hunger, pornography, sex tourism, industrial slavery, the grip of suicide and depression racking our youth’s education systems. The vicious cycle of uneducated and illiterate people groups, injustice in the business of prison systems, the neglecting of orphans.. the list goes on. If we saw people as people instead of a distant reality that is almost impossible to grasp, might this spark a shred of emotional attachment? I’ve heard this my whole life, “put yourself in someone else’s shoes”. Allow yourself to feel the gravity of this, it hurts and it’s uncomfortable, you might even catch yourself falling into apathy and indifference to combat this emotion; empathy.
Empathy.
Have some for the woman in India that can’t speak in the presence of a man without permission. Have some for the six year old Cambodian girl sold into sex slavery in order to feed her family for the coming months; that is, until the money runs out. Empathy. Feel this for the Haitian child that fights for a plate of rice and beans because they don’t know when their next meal is. Do this for the eighteen year old girl in Botswana that walks the street in fear of being raped for the fifth time. Do this for the parents enchained to poverty. The parents who were deprived of education and opportunity; who long to break this vicious cycle for thier children. Do this to break the corrupt grip of traditional witchcraft and false teaching thriving through Africa, leading people into nothingness while they believe they found salvation. Do this for the women and men in Asia; enslaved in a factory as they answer the pleads and cries of consumerism. Do this for the sixteen year old girl in the Dominican Republic being purchased for a night with a man old enough to be her father’s father. This is your sister, daughter, brother, son, mother or father. Spend one night in their shoes. Now, what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself, to love the girl in Cambodia as your sister, to love the boy in Haiti as your son?
In looking at face value of the large and small problems in the world, it’s easy to seperate empathy and apathy; however I’m speaking at the root of humanity. If we geninunely cared for others, if we lived out loving our neighbor as ourselves, we would see pain and hurt and desire to change it. It’s simple. If we fought apathy with empathy in the daily and tangible routine of life, things such as anxiety and depression enveloping our school systems, would stir us into action. Think about this with me. From elementary to high school, the foundation of the future spends about 29,120 hours in a classroom while learning little to nothing about real life. Nothing about identity, passion, religion, thought provoking-controversial topics, and healthy communication. Never mind depression, money management, anxiety, eating disorders, emotional health, cultural issues, poverty, and pressing idealistic goals for the future. Why aren’t we teaching students to think and pursue and lift their voices to the things their hearts beat for. Isn’t this what school should be about? Empowering and educating? In reality, youth roam the halls completely and utterly lost and alone, spending eight hours a day leaving them feel unseen and useless. Why are we stifling the youth, draining them from passion and individuality, boxing intelligence and educational success into standardized tests? I’m not saying I’m ungrateful for American education, it’s an opportunity I don’t know how to express my gratitude for, but what’s the point if we aren’t even remotely equipping them for life? If we were an empathetic people the ideals of the “american dream” would be tasteless; therefore ‘success’, would radically be redefined. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.. but lay up treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19). Our treasure should be one another.
In Haiti I met a jobless pastor and his wife in a village as they sat with their seventeen children. Fifteen were adopted; including a boy disabled at birth, infants born with HIV, orphans and the rejected children within the community. He mentioned that after the first child, more would show up on their doorstep in the mornings. Often mothers couldn’t afford to take care of their children because the father left or they had no income. But he explained that he couldn’t turn any of them away. These we God’s children: a gift. Money or no money, food or no food; God will provide. Children; skin and bones, suffer from the cruelty of malnutrition and hunger as they sleep on concrete in the single bedroom box they call home. The parents loved these children as their own; it was obvious in their aura, in the way the mom hugged them and huddled her babies together. The mom had the kids sing a song, the anthem of worship that left these little mouths will forever echo in my brain. This family has nothing to live for by earthly standards. It’s a sacrificial love that only points to the gospel, “and whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10: 38) If to live is Christ and to die is gain, let’s look at the way He lived. He took action in love, enough to sacrifice his life for. He slowed down to sit with the homeless man on the street, he loved the prostitute around the corner. The Haitian pastor and his wife tangibly live this out. This is a real and raw example of what it means to live for heaven, this is what it means to love the least of these. Let’s think about something casual and simple, something I miss, a 5 dollar cup of coffee, this drink could feed the family of nineteen. Empathy.
You are alive for a reason. That means God isn’t done with you yet. Therefore what makes you feel alive? What makes you angry? What breaks you? What are you passionate about? God is passionate about what he creates, because what he creates is perfect. So what awakes passion in you? Chase after that, follow it. Fuel your emotional response and channel it into something productive. Movements begin with a single idea met with action.
Care because you can. It’s a choice. Do something about it. Let’s choose to be an empathetic people.
My friend typed something about the atrocity of the American church, if you want to know where my thoughts have been and more of what I’m learning click this link : lillabeacochran.theworldrace.org
