My hope for Haiti, pt. 1.

Flying into Port Au Prince, six weeks after the quake that changed a nation forever, my heart beat out of my chest – not so much for the anticipation of the visual explosion that awaited me, but for the urgency in my spirit, an urgency I wasn’t sure existed.  My seat partner on the plane had already sensed my heaviness – he said, “wow, you just look…burdened” and in truth, I was glad at his observation.  Although I’ve been able, as anyone, to acknowledge the tragedy and it’s implications for Haitian people, I have felt very disconnected and somewhat unfeeling.  I understand the irony there, but at this stage in my “healing and resting” process, I’m still a little unsure of what will come out of my mouth or heart at any point.  It’s bizarre.  So someone else’s observation of what I’m clearly feeling was a comfort and confirmation rather than a frustration or acknowledgment of weakness.

Haiti has been in the news with decreasing frequency over the last few weeks and while World Vision and the Red Cross are still obviously deeply invested in restoration of this island nation, many people have already moved on.  I’ve been deeply convicted for the Body of Christ over how quick we are to move on from devastation and/or our involvement in it.  We are so easily distracted.  It’s not that we’re vindictive or maliciously denying aid to our fellow world inhabitants.  It’s that we are so very easily distracted.  Anything will suffice to steal our attention and shift our focus from the task at hand.  It’s happened with Haiti, it’s happened with taking the Gospel of Jesus to unreached people.  We are just…distracted.  My friend likened it to his 5 year old.  When asked to take her plate to the kitchen, she has every intention of doing so.  But between the living room and the kitchen, the smallest movement or flash of excitement lures her and weeks later, the plate is found in her bedroom closet.  How did she get so far away from the kitchen, where the plate so obviously goes?  Distraction.  We’re not so different.

Part of my desire in coming to Haiti this time is to understand my role in this tragedy and develop ways for us to stay engaged.  It will be terribly easy for us to get distracted by whatever sparkly thing the news shows us or our work or families take us to.  But the reality is that there are Haitian people with no food, no shelter, no water and this situation isn’t going to change overnight.  We are so rich and they are so poor.  We have so much, yet we are so quick to hold onto what is ours that we can’t give what is essentially life to our neighbors in Haiti?  Shame on us.

"I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something.

What I can do, that I ought to do.

And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I shall do."

- Edward Everett Hale

I am only one.  But with you, we are two.  We can’t do everything, but we can do something.  We ought to.  And by God’s grace we shall.