Too Far Removed

It's a quiet afternoon in North East Georgia.  The temps are finally warming up to seasonal levels.  The sun is shinning and there isn't much I can complain about.  Life is good and all is well.  I've been perusing Face Book and offering a few tweets to my followers.  I see that someone had Mexican for lunch.  Someone else is now friends with another person, and someone else joined another group.  Life goes on.  Life goes well.  The worst I've seen so far is perhaps someone battling a virus or something.  Of course, no one wants that!  People are building farms and zoos.  I know they're having a blast.  

But my heart is hurting today for a tiny Caribbean nation pretty far away from NE GA.  As you know Haiti was ravaged yesterday by a 7.0 earthquake, followed by several very serious aftershocks.  As soon as daylight hit today the pictures started flooding out of Haiti of the rubble and carnage.  One hardly ever thinks of Haiti, of the poverty there, and the overcrowding.  We know it is the poorest nation in the entire Western Hemisphere, but that's about all you hear.  However today the news networks are engrossed in reporting the catastrophic devastation. 

It is very difficult to relate to all the terror from the comfort of our lives here in the U.S.  Sure life must go on, but we must not proceed without a hurting heart that motivates us to pray fervently for the people of Haiti.  Just because things are at ease here today doesn't guarantee it will be that way tomorrow.  Just because it isn't the U.S. (as in 911) doesn't mean it couldn't be another time (just like Katrina).  But the greatest reason our hearts should be hurting today is because the people of Haiti are people.  I am sure God's heart is hurting today because a portion of His creation (the people) and their surroundings have been destroyed.  The people of Haiti are in shock today.  Many are injured.  Many are dead.  I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone.  

I urge you to pray fervently for the nation of Haiti.  They need our prayers.  If you are like me sometimes I feel helpless in actually doing something in a situation like this.  But the truth is we will never do anything unless our heart is hurting for the people.  We cannot be so far removed from the situation that we don't hurt.  As a matter of fact, distance should have absolutely no affect on whether or not we hurt for them.  Nothing can undo what has happened.  But people from all over the world, driven by compassion, can definitely make the difference.  People who don't allow distance to cause them to be too far removed to feel the hurt for the people.  Thanks for joining with me in praying for the situation as well as all the people pouring in to help.  We are definitely NOT too far removed.