Shining as lights...

Today I find myself sitting in the El Paso airport, sipping an overpriced, yet delicious coffee, and skimming the WHO's Ebola Response Roadmap as I wait for my flight home. 

Ebola has caused so much change. 

I should not linger too long on the changes in my own life. Instead of preparing to return to Liberia in a few weeks, I now feel commissioned with a new call to spread the word about the current situation there. To spread the word of the enormous and ever-growing needs. To spread stories of entire families that are dying and babies that are dying because their pregnant mothers can not find a hospital to have a c-section and friends of mine who are now refugees in their own country because their neighbors have ebola and children who are being orphaned and an entire region that is in a downward spiral, out of control. And all of it should be preventable. That's the worst part. It didn't have to get like this. 

Lives are changing in Liberia. The country was, as Liberians say, "coming up." Things were getting better, at least on the surface, for the country as it rebuilt after years of civil war. Children were graduating from high school and starting college-- now schools are closed indefinitely. Men were finding jobs, they were at least finding a way to make a little money each day and provide for their families-- now community quarantines are in order and the price of food has quadrupled. Women were starting to have dreams for their children's futures, for their own-- now everything has come to a standstill. 

The normal cadence of life and death-- greeting others with a handshake, a finger snap, crowded cars full of promise, caring for loved ones who are sick, gathering around the one who is lost-- everything has changed. The only thing on everyone's tongue is Ebola. Death and despair are everywhere. 

Thankfully, Liberians are survivors. They are fighters. As a nation, they have already survived war and hunger. They've struggled, but they've survived. I have to choose to believe they can survive this fight as well. It is a different fight. The enemy can not be seen. The enemy is not the ill person dying outside the clinic, but the invisible virus within. 

I also have to choose to believe, and claim it for all to hear, God is bigger than Ebola! He is bigger than the despair. He can pick this little country, the entire region, up out of this pit and bring restoration... healing... refreshing... peace. 

I believe God can move in ways that we do not understand. I believe He could speak the word and the Ebola virus would dissolve and be no more. I also believe that He uses us, He wants to use us in the process. He calls us to action, to help the hurting, to give, to pray. He builds us up and makes us stronger-- all of us-- through the process of taking steps of faith and choosing to believe. Choosing to act. Choosing to make changes that may not make sense or seem practical, yet lead to deeper faith, deeper fellowship of community. We need each other. And today, West Africa needs us.

Last Sunday I had the honor of sharing about the current situation in Liberia at my parent's church, Christ Community Church, in Alamogordo, NM. As I was preparing, God reminded me of a passage in Philippians (chap 2)--

"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."


We have been called to be united, to be of one mind, to look out for other's interests over our own (for Christ's sake)... even to death. I know that I don't live up to that, but I do not feel condemned by these verses, instead I feel encouraged to action (even a small action, like writing this blog).


The passage goes on to say—


"Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world..."

I think an entire book could be written of my grumbles and complaints alone. The current situation in West Africa puts my troubles into perspective, I have much to be thankful for. But, we do indeed live in a crooked and twisted generation. The problems of this world are not limited to West Africa-- Americans are being beheaded in Iraq, Christians are being tortured and imprisoned, countries are at war, diseases rage throughout the world, and there is so much more! Liberia is close to my heart and so it is where a lot of my thoughts and prayers go, but the point I want to make here is, are we shining like lights in the world? Wherever in the world we may be?


If my grumbling and complaining is all that others hear from me, the answer is no. I am scared for West Africa, it is not easy for me to hear the constantly horrific reports coming out of there. It is also hard for me to share it. I like to share good news, don't we all? Unfortunately, the news is not always good, yet I am called to share it the same. The world is a dark place, yet I am called to shine as a light to it. We all are.


Please shine with me today. Spread the word. Share this blog. Grab the hand of a loved one and pray together for those hurting in the world. Miracles can happen. We are part of it. 

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi