Wisdom and Virtue

On Friday afternoon I spent some time watching the news reports coming out of Newtown, Connecticut.  After a while of watching the coverage, I cried.  I didn’t cry the nice roll-down-your-cheek-controlled tears.  Rather I cried the really messy hysterical type of tears where it seems like a whole box of tissues might be required.  My heart ached.

I was really upset.  Upset that there are families mourning.  Upset that little children have to see and hear and experience such tragedy and violence.  Upset that bad things happen.  Upset that being completely innocent doesn’t protect first graders from violence.  I think many people around the country and around the world have been just as deeply upset as I have been.

My prayers have been filled with prayers for the grieving families.  I have been begging God to comfort the families of the victims, especially the mothers and fathers of those children.  I have asked God to have mercy on us, to have mercy on a country in which violence happens far too often.  I have implored God to give us all the wisdom to know what steps to take next.  These have been incredibly emotional prayers.  I’ve prayed harder and longer in the past couple of days than I have in a long time.

The only comfort I can find is to know that God mourns for those families in Connecticut. God feels the grief of the mothers and fathers of those children.  And God sees the pain of the whole world.  God sees the mother in Uganda who mourns the death of her toddler from malaria.  God hears the wails of the father in Iraq when his young daughter dies from a bomb in their neighborhood.  God knows the suffering a grandmother in Haiti feels when her grandson dies from starvation.  God is the only one who could possibly comfort all those who mourn.

We turn to prayer in this time of tragedy and great sadness, but we each know that something must be done.  We know that this is not the way the world is supposed to be.  It may not be clear at this point what exactly needs to be done to put an end to violence and the death of innocent children in our country and around the world.  There are certainly a lot of valid ideas out there.

David Starr Jordan said, "Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it."

In reality we need a little bit of a mix of wisdom and virtue today.  We need to start trying some of the ideas out there, evaluate what works and what doesn’t and then try something that may get us closer to a solution. 

The only way anything is going to change is if you and I demand that something change.  Children will continue dying from violence unless we continually make an intentional effort to change mindsets, to change hearts, and to change priorities.  Change does not come easy and there are no easy solutions to stop violence in our world.  Therefore, each of us must do something tomorrow and the next day and the day after that...  We cannot simply talk about how we need our lawmakers to do something, we must continually ask our lawmakers to do something while also doing whatever we can ourselves to change our families, our communities, our culture, our country, and ultimately our world.  The future of our children and our world depends on us.

May God grant us the wisdom to know what to do next and grant the virtue to do it.  And may God give us the hope to see beyond today, to see a day when violence and death have been overcome.

Let it be so.

My Christmas List

Last year for Christmas I got a llama, a sheep, ducks, water, a loan, meaningful work and dignity, and food.  None of this was really for me but rather these things helped give food, other basic necesities, and a chance for hope and a better future to people around the world. 

This year, all I want for Christmas is mosquito bed nets.  Lots of them, please.    

The stats and facts:

A child dies every 60 seconds from malaria.

Nearly 700,000 people die each year from malaria, most of them children and pregnant women.

These stats break my heart, but here’s the best fact of all: malaria is completely preventable and treatable! 

So for Christmas, rather than making up a list of things I want, I’m asking for my friends and family to give me mosquito bed nets by making a donation to the Lutheran Malaria Initiative.

As part of a worldwide effort, the Lutheran Malaria Initiative has this goal: to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.  That’s a pretty audacious goal, but it’s a goal that is achievable. 

Here's some information from LMI’s website:

“The most effective methods currently being used to control malaria include proper diagnosis and prompt medical treatment, proper use of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying. To be successful these strategies require education about malaria and how to prevent and treat it. The Lutheran Malaria Initiative works through local partners to educate families on malaria, increase access to treatment, and provide prevention tools such as bed nets.”

Education: LMI educates families on the causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention of malaria.

Treatment: Increasing access to affordable medical care and resources for malaria prevention.

Prevention: LMI provides treated bed nets to families and trains them on their proper use.

"We work in communities where we already have strong relationships, such as those with our Lutheran partner churches and other local, community organizations. These long-standing partnerships make the ideal platform for introducing malaria programming. Already, the work of the Lutheran Malaria Initiative is making an impact. To date, LMI has reached 2.4 million people through malaria projects in Tanzania, Mali, Uganda, and Kenya. With increased funding, LMI will expand to Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Nigeria, Guinea, Niger and Ghana."

The Lutheran Malaria Initiative is doing some incredible work in preventing and treating malaria!  I invite you to be a part of this work- whether you want to give me a Christmas present of a bed net or maybe you want to add a bed net to your Christmas list.

Stoplights

On my way to work at Feed My Starving Children, there are 27 stoplights (Yes, I counted them. There are 27.).  That’s a lot of stoplights.  It’s especially a lot of stoplights on the occasions when I hit them when they are red.  You know how it goes… patiently waiting for the light to turn green, trying to increase or decrease your speed so you don’t have to stop at a red light, inching forward toward the line to try to trip or trick the light timer, waiting for the irresponsible drivers in front of you to stop texting and pay attention when the light does turn green.

There is this one street near Augustana College where there is a stoplight every single block or two, about 6 of them in a row.  The timing on these lights is such that you hit every single light when it’s red or you hit the lights and they are all green.  You can imagine the fury when you hit each of them when they are red.  But when you hit those lights at exactly the right time, you can just sail through them all. 

It’s one of the best feelings in the world.

One time in my small group we were talking about prayer and someone brought up the idea of praying for green lights.  Well, it had never occurred to me to pray for green lights.  There are a lot of theological questions packed up in this idea: Does God have the power to make stoplights turn green?  What if two people coming to a light from perpendicular directions both pray for a green light?  Does God have time to deal with such seemingly insignificant things?  Is this something we should even bother God with?  Aren’t there more important things to pray about?

I will say that I may have prayed for some stoplights to turn green and prayed for some lights to stay green recently.  And God has answered this prayer a few times…

However, I’ve had some difficulty with metaphorical red and green lights in life.  Green lights are those things that God puts in my life and says, “Ok, Melissa, this is a good thing for you to do.  Do it.”  And red lights are those things in life that God tells me, “Melissa, this isn’t a good thing for you to do.  Don’t do it.”   I really really wish God would do this audibly, but God hasn’t yet.  It usually happens in the form of “nudges” or things that do or don’t come into my life.  And I’m ok with this.

But sometimes I feel like God is messing with me.  He puts things in my path, things that I get really excited about, he gives me green lights, and I’m more than ready to go through these intersections.  But then, all the sudden the light turns yellow.  God tells me to slow down when going through the intersection, or take a different direction when going through the intersection, or to wait a while before going through the intersection.  But the worst is when I feel like God has given me a green light and I’m about ready to drive through an intersection at full speed and then the light abruptly turns red.  No yellow light to warn me.  Just a big, bright, red light telling me that what I thought were signs of a green light weren’t.

Super frustrating and discouraging and disappointing.  And it leaves me upset and stressed and confused.

But there are also red lights or lights I don’t even know are there that all the sudden turn green.  A red light I have been praying about for a while turns green.  Something completely unexpected opens up.  A green light shines brightly.

It’s one of the best feelings in the world.