What Is The Business of Life?

“Refugees fleeing to Kalma (Sudan) from a village called Saleya described how nine boys were seized by the janjaweed, stripped naked and tied up, their noses and ears cut off and their eyes gouged out. They were then shot dead and left near a public well.”

So writes Nicolas D. Kristof today in Uncover Your Eyes.

In his article he pleads for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George Bush to exert their tremendous powers on behalf of the people of Dafur.

I know we are all involved in making a living, shopping and looking after what we feel is the business of our lives. But our first business, in God’s eyes, is awareness and choosing to give the best of our selves in order to alleviate suffering.

We cannot count on small organizations to stop what is going on. Organizations such as Doctors Without Borders are run ragged trying to mop up one atrocity after another in Dafur as members are harassed and even arrested for aiding victims.

I am convinced our lack of national will to write to President Bush and insist he take action is due to lack of education on this topic. We need an education about it that our media is failing to give us.

More and more concerned about how our walk is not matching our talk, media sources decry the torture that is going on in prison compounds in the name of our “war on terror.” People are horrified by the idea that over 100 detainees have died as a result of inhuman treatment. And they should be. God is very clear on how we are to treat others – even people we know want to hurt us, much less those we only suspect want to hurt us.

If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. – Romans 12:20; Proverbs 25:21-22

Yet while I agree with those who say – as a Christian nation – we cannot tolerate treatment of even our enemies in so deplorable a way, how is it that we can ignore the terrorizing and extermination of – not 100 – but hundreds of thousands of innocent people who only want to gather their firewood, cook their meals and attend to their families?

We are all responsible for one another.

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. - John 13:34-35

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. – Mark 12:31

Those are not just words. They are a call to action to everyone who calls him or herself a Christian.

And right now, calling – or writing – President Bush would be loving your neighbor as yourself, would it not?

For if this horror were happening here, in your neighborhood, would you not be praying for someone to notice, care and clamor for action? And if they did, would you not fall on your knees to Almighty God and sob tears of gratitude?

Blessings –