When you have bad news often enough your mind becomes numb to it. You are no longer are shocked by the horrors, the numbers dead, or those that are in need. You just don’t see it anymore. It seems in America we are all inundated with bad news. We hear it so often that we don’t hear it anymore. 

The only time tragedy that really hurts us is a tragedy that hits close to home. Otherwise, we go about our self-absorbed existence, blissfully unaware or unfeeling of the pain and suffering of others. We might even give money to a cause to help those in need but even that requires all too little of us. The cries of the suffering fall on deaf ears. 

In the movie Hotel Rwanda, there was a line that shook me to my soul. A man was saying that it was good that the media got the news out about the horrors that had happened, that now people would help because people would see.  Surely, if they saw they would do something. This man was an idealist who thought better of the world he lived in.  He wanted to believe in other people’s compassion to act when they see others hurt unjustly, to defend them or just to send help.  Yet in the movie another more realistic man responded with the comment that people would look up from what they were doing for a moment, say or think how sad, and go back to the normal life. But it was his belief that they would do nothing. The second man was right.  

In just 100 days in Rwanda 562,000 to 662,000 people were slaughtered just for being in the wrong group. That is no small number, yet how many of us in the world watching really gave more than a passing thought to the horrors that occurred there that are recorded for all to see. Why is this? How can we be so callous?

I think one of the major reasons is because of how common these tragedies are.  They seem to happen all the time, and so far away from us. We watch so much violence, so much bad news that we are unfazed by anything anymore. I know this is true because I see it happening every day. I even feel myself slipping into this apathetic mindset, into the numbness. The Romans didn’t begin watching people and animals die for sport overnight. It became accepted as the norm the more they became numb to what was happening.  This is the enemy’s trick, it’s what the enemy wants. A world that doesn’t care about others that are suffering, lost, and in need. A world that doesn’t bother to reach out to help them, that doesn’t make any effort to not only observe their pain but seek to remedy it in some way. That isn’t willing to leave their comfort zones to meet the needs and the needy where they are. 

The greatest tragedy is that after having endured so much suffering here in this life, many only endure more in eternity if we don’t do something to let them know that there is a God who loves them. Remember in scripture it says in 1 John 3:17 “but if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.” Or in James 2:14-17 “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  

Wow, talk about scripture calling out the believers.  If you say you believe your actions will show it, compassionate action not just words.  Even Christ himself specifically addressed the same idea about a true believer having faith displayed in action when he was speaking in Matthew about the final judgement.  He said that when the Son of Man comes in all his glory, the sheep will be separated from the goats. Some receive the message “For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me, I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me.  The righteous will say, “Lord when were you hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick or in prison.” And the king will say “Whatever you do to the least of these you do unto me.”

I know it is a hard truth to hear but apathy and inaction are not what God has called believers to.  You all are not called to minister to the same areas or in the same ways, but we are called to not only speak God’s words of life and love but live in a way that demonstrates it.  We are literally Christ’s hands and feet on this earth, and we need to remember that.  

We cannot let tragedy pass and not find a way to minister to others who are in need.  Yes, pray and wish others well, but put action behind the words when you are able. Find ways to meet the needs of the suffering. There are so many ways.   We need to be a light that shows we serve a God who wants to save them not just their body but their soul. We must wake up, feel, see others through God’s eyes, for he has given us life and light to reach, to heal, and to comfort. We were saved to share and love in word and deed. We just have to see the need and meet it. We are the ones who are called, we are the army of dry bones who he has given life to. We must rise up in his name. How else will they know the truth unless we show them?  Don’t let the enemy tempt you into apathy and inaction, open your eyes to the unmet needs of those around you, and love them with more than just words.