The scenes from the disaster in Texas and the Gulf Coast are horrific. It is difficult to fathom the scale of the disaster. The media, skilled at bringing us the human story, provides us with names and faces and images that haunt us. And where no images are available, skilled wordsmiths paint verbal pictures that leave us overwhelmed and heartsick - like the toddler in the flood waters who clung to the body of her dead mother until she was rescued.
We watch. We cry. We feel sick. We want to help. We reach out and make a donation of whatever we can knowing that these people are family - we want to help.
Those with sensitive hearts are wise to minimize exposure to the news - it can be overwhelming. But we must be careful not to shield our hearts from the pain in the world. Our hearts are meant to crack wide open in moments like this. That's what causes them to enlarge so they can hold more compassion...which is desperately needed...because Texas is not the only place of brokenness in our world.
Our hearts need to enlarge so that along with compassion for the suffering along the Gulf Coast we can find compassion and presence for the 16 million people impacted by the devastating floods across South Asia. 16 million people. More than 1,200 people have been killed in these floods - 500 in the Indian State of Bihar alone. Tens of thousands are displaced. But unlike our neighbors in Texas, there are no people telling their stories. In fact, when I went on the BBC website to look for information about the floods in Asia, it was buried under stories of a cash crisis, doctors fighting in an operating room, the infamous India rapist guru, and reports of a TV show taken off the air in India because of the controversy surrounding its "unusual love story." Finally I found the story Toddlers Killed in Mumbai Rains - and it linked me to more information about the incredible loss and devastation happening in that part of the world...to our neighbors...our human family.
The Sierra Leone mudslides and floods that killed hundreds within the past two weeks has fallen completely off the news cycle.
Both NPR and the BBC carried cautionary stories today about how the world focuses on what is happening in Houston and forgets what happens in Asia and Africa. There are fears expressed by international aid agencies that people will donate towards the victims whose stories we know (America) and forgot those whose stories are never told (the rest of the world). There is a fear that our hearts are only so big - that compassion fatigue will set in and the most vulnerable will be forgotten. Again.
As followers of Jesus we are meant to be broken-hearted. Our hearts are meant to be cracked wide open - enlarged - healed (again and again and again and again) until they can contain compassion enough for the suffering of the world. Because we live in privilege and have access to the names and tragic stories of the people (and pets) facing catastrophic loss in our neighborhood of America we must not limit the scope of our compassionate response to what we know and what is familiar. As Christians we are global citizens - our neighborhood is bigger than America. Disasters in Asia happen to our family. Catastrophes in Africa impact our relatives. Until we can see and respond as citizens of this amazing but ailing planet we will never - and I mean never - have the vision necessary to truly address the global systemic issues that impact all life on our planet.
Warming oceans enhance the frequency and severity of these weather events. We share the same oceans and planet - we are all in this together.
Natural disasters impact the poor the most. Those with privilege have options the poor lack. We see glimpses of this in Texas. But when we look at this on a global scale, those who are poor in Texas have access to resources that flood victims in Bangladesh do not. Our hearts need to be big enough for the suffering in Texas and in Bangladesh. Our will needs to be fixed on changing the systemic inequities that keep the poor living in the most vulnerable places with the fewest resources. I am a pet lover and was deeply relieved to see the Humane Society rescuing pets from flooded homes in Houston. But if we have the will and ingenuity as a people to see that pets are rescued from the flood waters and taken to shelters (and that the animals already in those shelters are flown to other cities to make room for the animals displaced by the flood waters in Texas), we surely can have the will and creativity to see that people whose stories we will never know - who face hardships we cannot begin to fathom - have the resources they need to find safety and the necessities to live a life of dignity.
Please - open your heart to the suffering in Texas. Do what you can to alleviate the suffering of our nearby neighbors on the Gulf Coast. But when you make your donation to the UCC (Wind and Flood Disaster Harvey) or the Red Cross or Save the Children or the Humane Society, don't stop there. Make a matching donation for the other flood victims whose stories we have not heard. Give to the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) or Doctors Without Borders or any of the UN Relief Agencies. By doing this you are acknowledging through your actions what we believe in our hearts: that our neighbors in Texas are beloved children of God - as are our neighbors who are flood victims in India or Sierra Leone. We may not have easy access to their stories, but that does not make them any less deserving of our compassionate response.
May our hearts shatter in the face of such tragedy. May our healing tears water the pieces of our hearts and help them to mend enlarged and able to hold more compassion. May we see this beloved world and all its inhabitants through God's eyes of love. And may we act accordingly.
Heartbroken and hope-filled,
Kim
This is so good. Thank you.
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