Thoughts on Japan Disaster

If you asked me which of the seven deadly sins I succumb to, sloth would not be high on the list. Yes, I envy way too much for my own good and I am ever so lustful, but sloth? Not so much. I am a self-professed workaholic who hates spending a day lounging around and I always try to be most efficient with my appointments. (Scheduling them all on the same day, back to back, etc.)

But at Sovereign Grace, the church I’ve been visiting recently, the pastor is covering the seven deadly sins and last week’s message on sloth totally hit home for me.

I am a sloth. A total sloth.

This is according to pastor Alex’s definition of sloth, of course-defined not as avoidance of work but avoidance of the most important work. Spiritually and relationally lazy and apathetic. Sure, I make a lot of time and do a lot of work for things I care about but am I doing that for the things I should care most about?

Take the earthquake in Japan.  It is truly saddening, heartbreaking and frustrating. It is a tragedy. It is frightening.

But I have to be honest. For Japan and many of the other enormous natural disasters that have occurred in the past few years, I have been mostly an apathetic sympathizer.  I watch the news clips and I sigh about it to my friends and my family and I pray and I donate to the Red Cross and I tsk tsk at those who aren’t reacting properly to the disasters but when Hurricane Katrina struck, I was busy turning in papers and studying for midterms and when the Haiti earthquake hit, I was madly looking for jobs and for this tsunami, I am still preoccupied with life here. Japan is a place I have only visited once; a distant, foreign locale with customs and traditions and people I’ve heard about, some I’ve befriended here in the US and food I love.  But there’s always more pressing matters closer to home that I felt I had to attend to. Stuff like figuring out what I wanted to do for the weekend or checking out who was dating who on Facebook.

Before I make myself sound any more like a selfish cold-hearted bitch of a monster, let me tell you that these are just my honest, honest feelings on the whole thing. I am not about to be someone who tweets a couple of times about Japan and think I’ve done my good deed for the day. I see that I am a slight emotional sloth and I want to change that.

The question presented at service last week also brought up this question: “How do you care about something that you don’t care about when you know you should?”

I’m sure there are many solutions to this question but one presented by the pastor was replacing diligence with devotion. It’s not about doing the work. It’s about bring joy into the work that you’re doing. It’s not about helping out in natural disasters just because you ought to, just because that’s what would be expected of you but it’s being so devoted to our fellow humans and to lives that you are helping and raising awareness and supporting out of love, out of your heart being moved to action.

But what if your heart is not moved? It’s not broken? What if this is just a stinky thing happening somewhere in the world but turning in that project to work or going on your first blind date or babysitting your baby niece feels just a little more pressing?

Art thanks to: http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/

Well, don’t completely turn your attention away from it. Think about it. Imagine yourself in that dire position, your families scattered, your house torn apart. Keep it on your mind, in your heart. That’s how your heart will even stand a chance of swaying, of feeling emotions for things. And that’s how you will even be moved to take action, to help, to support.

Jesus says in Mark 12:30-31: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

I think we can all agree that (as cheesy as this sounds) love is what makes the world go round. It’s what motivates our actions, makes our decisions, makes us happy. I’m not going to ask you to donate to Red Cross or volunteer in Japan or anything (though both will be nice!) But I do recognize that what we need is less diligence and more devotion, less apathy and more action, less ignorance and more initiation. So I’m just asking you to open your heart to more love– to receiving more, to giving more. I’m asking myself to do this as well. Let’s try to open our hearts and help others together!

Yay. Now that I’m done with my post on Japan, I can go back to blogging about happy things! Kidding…

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posted by Janice | Comment: 4 | God, Inspirations, Love, Personal, Uncategorized

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