Who Cares?
Posted by Ryan Woods
A while back I heard Donald Miller speak and he said something that I can really get into. One of my fellow listeners raised their hand and asked Don what his thoughts were about the church of tomorrow. Was he pessimistic or optimistic? His answer was easy, he said that he was very optimistic because the 'new' church/Christians now view social justice as a spiritual discipline. In other words, helping people is important again (Kinda like it was for JC).
Here's the rub, I don't really care about the world. I've blogged about all this before. For nearly a week I thought that there was someone named Katrina who was murdering people (or assassinating, it depends on their importance really). I saw headlines like "Katrina kills many", and I thought, "wow, that sucks". Granted, I had just been holed up in a hospital having a baby, but it just goes to show my ignorance. In my heart of hearts I don't care what happens to the children of Somalia. I should, but I don't. I want to, but I do nothing about it. It's kind of like the CS Lewis poem where he says that a scholars parrot may talk greek. I am that parrot. I can talk the stuff good, but when it comes down to the real fact of the matter I'm simply a parrot reciting what I've heard.
So now I ask this, oh dearest Blogmunity, where do I begin? How do I learn about the pains of the world and then what do I do about it? How do I keep up? How do I become politically aware and then make informed decisions? I already care enough about my immediate community and feel a deep sense of calling to serve them. But what about the world in a greater sense? Shouldn't I care? Do you?