natural tragedy vs manmade tragedy

I continue to hear about the outpour of peoples time, money, love, and compassion towards the people of Haiti. This is a fantastic thing. I am so glad that so many people, at least for a few more months, are choosing to reject the apathy that my generation is so notorious for.

But I beg the question: "Where is that thunderous voice of compassion towards manmade, and totally preventable tragedies?"

Here is how I see it:

1. A hurricane, an earthquake, anything to do with mother nature generally is not preventable. Usually, mother nature cannot be stopped. Therefore, these are natural tragedies.

2. Sex trafficking, child soldiers, among other things, are manmade tragedies. Meaning, that this was started by humans, and is controlled by humans. Thus, it is a manmade tragedy.

The wars in Uganda, Darfur, Congo, where child soldiers are aptly involved, has been going on for years. In relative terms, it has been fairly recently that people in the USA have started to pay attention to what is going on over there, with the help of groups such as Save Darfur, Invisible Children, and Falling Whistles.

What totally blows my mind, is that what is going on in those countries is TOTALLY preventable. What is going on there could be solved, could be prevented, could be fought against. So why does no one care? Why do people suddenly get up in arms for something awful that nature did, but the same millions that help out those causes, remain completely apathetic towards the atrocities that are happening in those countries. Preventable atrocities.

I fail to understand why children who are forced to kill each other, are forced to watch their own mothers and sisters be raped, are forced to do terrible, terrible things, deserve less attention than a natural tragedy.

I fail to understand why children who are stolen from their homes and forced into the world of sex trafficking are less important than the children people try so hard to help when mother nature rears its unforgiving head.

How can people pay so little attention to these horrible,

Horrible events in the world?

Is it because they are not in the headlines?

Is it because so many people refuse to educate themselves

On these heartbreaking, totally preventable tragedies?

someone please explain this to me.

humbleness, and keep your feet in the cement

(humbleness)

Last night my band played a show for a few hundred kids. When we got off stage, it was safe to say we all knew that this was not our best show. Careless mistakes were made that could've been easily avoid, on everyone's parts. Some of this was band error, other was technical error. Either way you spin it, I was pretty bummed out.

We started packing our gear off stage as quick as possible, debating who should stay, should we go, how are we going to get stuff from point A to point B, blahblahblah. As a band we all decided to chill out and hang out by our merch booth.

It started as a trickling effect, then became a pretty constant flow, of kids coming up to us and asking for autographs and pictures, for merch, and just to talk. I made it a point to ask every kids name, shake their hand, make sure that they knew that I cared so much that they were supporting us this way. It was fantastic.

--------cut to this morning, 1pm, i'm still chilling in bed----------

(and keep your feet in the cement)

I was just sitting in bed, thinking about last night. And what a humbling experience. It was now easy for me to see how bands could get big heads with stuff like that, if they don't take a step back and realize what just happened.

Most of the kids that talked to us were middle schoolers and high schoolers. And what is one big theme for that time in your life? Searching! Searching for who you are, and looking for people and things that you can latch unto that help define you. And for that short time, we got to be part of that "thing". We got to help define that kid for .0002 seconds. But it was amazing none the less. It was awesome to know that God put us there on that night, to be able to touch those kids lives for just a moment. To show them that to us, they mattered, and that we were just as stoked to talk to them, as they were stoked to talk to us.

I just hope all of these kids that were searching that night, and every night, can one day stop searching. Because I know that what they are searching for can never be found on this earth. Because some days I am searching for the same thing they are. But God will find us, if we just let Him. If we just embrace surrender.

the bride of christ is starving to death because no one is feeding her

I was talking with my old youth pastor several weeks ago, and discussing how it's a struggle to be spiritually fed at the church I am working at.

"Dude, let me stop you there" he said

Long story short, he explained to me some church history, the reason church was started. So I ask you, why was the church started?

"To worship God" answers the average Christian.

To what?

"To worship God"

So what is church for?

"To be spiritually fed"

Wrong.

Church is not about getting "spiritually fed". Rather, it is the contrary. We need to go to church with a full plate. We need to go to church to worship God. Worship God in the hearing of His word, in communion, in offering, in singing. All of this is worship to God.

None of this has anything to do with being "spiritually fed". My generation is obsessed with that term. We have failed to see that, that is about as selfish as we can get in regards to church, the Bride of Christ. We want to make the wedding totally focused around our needs and wants.

We are called to come with a full plate of what the Spirit has done in our life that week, in order to communion with other members of the church. So many wonder why the church is so spiritually empty. The answer is obvious now. Because so many of its members come there in hopes of being fed, as opposed feeding the church, in worship to God.

So to my generation: stop church hopping.

Stop looking for a church where the messages are totally relevant to your life.

It is not about us.

It is about worshiping our creator.

It is not about getting spiritually fed.

Let us turn our focus from on ourselves, and back to God.

god my god my god, where have you been?

over 50,000 of your children dead.

God. My God. My God. Where have you been?

a copy of a copy

some people are self-defined.

by this I mean, they change their surroundings,

and while their surroundings, of course, effect them (how could they not)

generally, they will walk into a black room, paint it white

and walk out with a little white paint on them.

why?

because they just painted the room.

then

there are people who are defined by their surroundings

they will walk into a black room and notice how everything is black

instead of painting it white

they paint themselves black.

they have no self-identity.

year, by year, by year they are transformed by the people they surround themselves with.

I can not begin to imagine living like this.

I can not imagine living like you.

get these in ya claws boy