{"id":1316,"date":"2011-01-26T09:59:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T13:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/?p=1316"},"modified":"2011-01-26T09:59:52","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T13:59:52","slug":"faces-in-the-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/cwr\/2011\/01\/faces-in-the-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces in The Crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

From World Relief Canada and originally appeared\u00a0here<\/a>.*<\/p>\n

A worthwhile consideration from Jill Carattini, managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. <\/em><\/p>\n

I confess that I am often overwhelmed by the plethora of good and honest causes that call out in dire need for supporters.\u00a0 Because donations were once made to the Cancer Society in lieu of flowers at a family funeral, I am on every list of every cancer related drive that comes to our area.\u00a0 Similar donations in the names of deceased friends and relatives who requested a particular charity or ministry be remembered also keep me well-informed of need.\u00a0Long after the donation is processed, I remain on these lists too.\u00a0Now in the midst of worldwide economic struggles, natural disasters, and tragedies far and wide, I am inundated by causes that legitimately cry out for help, calling me to see the world through the eyes of a child, a recovering drug addict, a victim of sex-trafficking, illness, or earthquake.\u00a0Whatever your belief-system or creed, the haunting crescendo of heartfelt cries is never easily met with a deaf ear.\u00a0There is so much need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the foundations are being destroyed,\u201d cried the psalmist, \u201cwhat can the righteous do?\u201d (Psalm 11:3).\u00a0When need is deep and poverty unplumbed, when hopelessness seems one long, uninterrupted lament \u2014 from screams of natural disaster and tears of economic disaster to the silenced cries of injustice across the world \u2014 what can I do?\u00a0When the decision to support one cause is a decision against supporting another, when money can only go so far and can hardly touch the depths of the issues around us, we can become not only paralyzed to make the decision, but inclined to take a large step away from all of it. And I, for one, often euphemize my mental retreat to the one asking for support: \u201cNot at this time,\u201d \u201cI’ll think about it,\u201d or even worse, \u201cLet me pray about it.\u201d For behind my words is too often a manifestation of indifference \u201cWait\u201d almost always means \u201cnever.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his letter from a Birmingham jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. responded to fellow American clergy who were asking him to wait for a better time to pursue the cause of justice in the South. \u201cPerhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, \u2018Wait,\u2019\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill with impunity your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society\u2026 when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of \u2018nobodiness\u2019 \u2014 then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.\u201d\u00a0(1) <\/sup>To call for those suffering to wait is to institutionalize our apathy.<\/p>\n

Though at times unconsciously taken, our steps away from the center of the world’s pain to a place where we can clear our heads and find perspective are invariably steps toward putting it out of our heads.\u00a0Requesting time to think, we are requesting time itself to stop.\u00a0We are asking those with urgent needs to pause for the sake of our own relief.\u00a0We ask those affected by injustice and hunger, darkness and pain, racism and religious persecution to cover their faces in nobodiness while we step away from it all.\u00a0 But as Dr. King observed prophetically, \u201cJustice too long delayed is justice denied.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us, he did not say it with the despair of one who looks around and sees how vast is the need and poverty of a hurting world.\u00a0He did not say it with apathy or indifference, needing time to step away or find perspective.\u00a0On the contrary, he said it knowing every face in the immense crowd of nobodiness, knowing every name we would try not to learn when the pain of others becomes unbearable.\u00a0He said it living in time where tears are real, yet conscious of eternity when tears will be no more, showing us the mindset he longs for us to hold: a non-answer is very clearly an answer.\u00a0\u201cTruly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me,\u201d he said plainly.<\/p>\n

The cries of the oppressed and brokenhearted will continue to resound though many of us sit in comfortable apathy and languid affluence.\u00a0And the call of Christ can be heard in the midst of it all, urging us to set aside all that entangles and follow after him and into the heart of it.\u00a0The poor and the downcast will indeed always be with us, and where we will allow ourselves to see, it will be overwhelming.\u00a0They need justice, they need mercy, and they need our time \u2014 even as Jesus seems to tell us that it is we who are most in need of them.\u00a0When he told the crowds that the poor would always be near, he said it as if it were a promise that he, too, would be near.\u00a0He made the comment knowing that throughout most of history the Son of God would not be with us in the flesh.\u00a0But in the cup of cold water delivered to the thirsty, in the reaching out to the downtrodden and oppressed, he is indeed there among us.\u00a0He is both the hand extended to the one hurting and the eyes of the one in need \u2014 destroying the notion of nobodiness two faces at a time.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/sup> Martin Luther King, Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther (New York:HarperCollins, 1991), 292.<\/p>\n

*We realize there is confusion on the relationship of Covenant World Relief and World Relief. Here is a quick overview:
\nCovenant World Relief<\/a> (CWR) is partners with World Relief <\/a>(WR). World Relief’s offices are in Baltimore, Maryland whereas CWR is a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church with offices in Chicago, IL. World Relief also has entities in other countries, including Canada.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From World Relief Canada and originally appeared\u00a0here.* A worthwhile consideration from Jill Carattini, managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. 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