The shock of this statement washed over me as I listened to this little boy show me how sheltered and blessed I really was.
You really begin to question your priorities when you hear these words coming from a kindergartener.
How can we not become crushed by the weight of the world’s problems? With all of the pain, heartache, and evil in this world, how should we respond? My first, albeit unhelpful response is to become overwhelmed and discouraged. How can I possibly solve these huge problems? I have taken to avoiding the news now, because I struggle to handle the vast amount of suffering I am exposed to.
But as this little boy in a local school quickly taught me, there are few places I can go to escape exposure to suffering.
We as Christians do this frequently-try to escape the world. We have our Christian bookstores, Christian schools (or homeschooling) Christian radio stations, and have exclusively Christian friends. We can even go to Christian-run establishments to shop, find Christian movie review websites to find out exactly what questionable materials are in each movie we expose our children to. In the United States today, one can essentially live inside a self-made, Christian bubble to a large extent, shielding oneself by and large from the outside world and the suffering and evil that is its trademark.
But is that what we are called to do?
Jesus didn’t eat with the best people, and isolate himself to be with the people who went to church.
He ate with the tax collectors and sinners. He ate with the worst of the worst.
His disciples? Men who worked with fish for a living, who had little money and less decorum.
He hung out with the broken, and ministered to their needs.
I can turn off the news, go to my Christian establishments, and hang out with my Christian friends, but if I’m actually going to follow the example of this Jesus I talk so much about, I need to be in the world.
I need to understand suffering, and embrace those who are broken.
I need to Love everyone around me.
My heart sometimes breaks for the children like that little boy whose next meal depends on a bag of food from school.
In response to my breaking heart, my calling is to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these people.
To use what resources I’ve been blessed with to step outside of my sanitized Christian bubble.
I need to embrace the broken, hurting, careworn people around me who are crying out for all the love I can give.
