VIRB

Yesterday night I was watching American Idol and I guess they're doing some charity thing and part of the show was showing a trip that the host and one of the judges took to Africa. They visited poverty stricken communities where kids, younger than me, were raising their brothers and sisters and living in dirt huts after their parents died. While in Africa they met people who died only hours later. The conditions were horrible. After the 3 minute clip finished, the host remarked "I know this is hard to watch for most of us..." What? Children and families are dying and starving and literally living in a hell, and we find it hard to watch? My heart just breaks, we are so comfortable sitting there trying to relax for the evening, while kids half way around the world are sleeping on mats on the ground wondering if they'll get to see the sun rise tomorrow. And its "hard for us to watch"...

What amazes me is the mentality that these people have, they don't want pity and they don't want to cry about it. They accept that this is how things are, and they carry on. They bounce back, because they don't have time to think about it, they need to support their family. We could learn so much from this, we get so set in our ways, wake up, grab a coffee, get to school and work, get home, relax and get ready to start over again. We're living in our own world, and we go on uninterrupted, and inconvenienced by other's pain. If only we opened our eyes, if only we could reach outside of the cycle. If only we would stop caring so much about the shoes, and the clothes and the music, and broke out of our complacency to feel the pain of those around us.

I may never make any kind of lasting achievement for myself, and if I die tomorrow maybe no one will remember my name. All I can do is try, not for my own prosperity and satisfaction, but to live only for others. To act. To live outside our needs. To give everything, and want nothing. Besides, its not my name I want everyone to remember, my name won't get you anywhere. To be remembered only as the one who followed Him. Jesus Christ is the only name I ever want to carry. And to say I did not live for myself, but for Him.