What Have You Done for Us Lately?

There are injuries in this world that are too grievous, too heinous, too… altogether unfathomable, that we just block them out.  We hear of them.  We see them on the news (or in our newsfeed) and … click- something in our brain shuts off.  We can’t “go there.” 

We can’t imagine the suffering, the trauma, the long process of recovery and healing that our fellow humans will be facing.

Oh, we might gasp in horror, shake our heads, or say a prayer.  Some of us will post a status on social media speaking out against crime, injustice or the cruelty of this world. That might ease our conscience a bit or make us feel secure in our own efforts to “do something” for or against… whatever it was- or is.

But have we really done anything?  Deitrich Bonhoeffer is known to have said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”  Bonhoeffer practiced what he preached: he was outspoken in his stand against widespread persecution of the Jews, and was eventually executed for his opposition to the Nazi regime.

Let’s do something.  No, I don’t mean plotting, rioting or spreading hate.  I mean, doing something good.  Be love. Spread hope.  Dance with your neighbors.  Give a hug. Commit a random act of kindness. Pay it forward.  Forgive someone. Volunteer. Smile.  Feed the hungry.    

You get the idea. Don’t just hide from the pain that exists in the world.  Take some action.

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