How do you reconcile all the pain and poverty that rips into the beauty of our world? Our hearts walk on broken glass as we see the tragedies of our fellow brothers and sisters, miles away but close enough to touch us. We have everything while some have nothing. And even that gets taken away from the least of our kind.
If we added up all our sorrows and lamentations and felt it together as one, the universe will tremble and bleed till its light slowly extinguished. This darkness is overwhelming to the point of death. Deliver us, deliver us from this evil. We are in a wretched state to be forced into hierarchy. Even if it works in our favour, what about the rest of us. And what little can we do as we watch the dying cry out? Will my hundreds of dollars help, will it fade into the yawning abyss, will it be stolen and fought over? Will it change one life?
I look at my luxuries around me. There’s no rubble around, no roof on my body, my treasures are with me, I’ve lost nothing while some have lost their world. The poorest of the poor, is there something I can do?
Then those on the outside start to question God’s existence, for a loving God will never allow this pain, this suffering that tears at our humanity. He would stop it, he would fight it and set us free. He would do anything to save this cursed race. But how well do you know God? I won’t go down the road and pretend I know God’s motivations and intentions. I won’t even say it’s all part of a greater plan and picture, and that it’s for the best. I know all these words can darken one’s soul even more.
But what I’ll say is this: Halfway across the world from this mass destruction and carnage, people are rejoicing, getting engaged, buying beautiful things, living like there’s no tomorrow. And in the heart of darkness, people are dying and waiting for days without food and water under heavy concrete and rubble. They will inevitably lose something invaluable even if their lives are saved. Why this unfair discrepancy?
We all live in our own worlds, whether or not there’s a natural disaster to prove it. It just accentuates it. There will always be a continuum known as life. We didn’t choose to be born into this, we can’t choose what happens to us, to each other. We don’t have the universal power of choice. What we do have though is the power to do something, however small. What good does it do to ruminate on whether or not God exists when crisis strikes? What good will it do to believe in no God or one who is heartless?
Our power to help one person could be their destiny, our blessing in this difficult journey of life. If we think about the metaphysical and try to make sense of all the mess that goes on in our world, we’ll never be able to make it even a candlelight’s better. We each have something to offer, as we have already given to those we love. We may be black, white or different, we may live in the richest city in the world while others live in the drains, but inherently we are all the same. For we can’t choose the circumstances into which we are born, and we don’t always choose the lives we end up with.
Our fate lies in our hands, as well as in the hearts of others. Should we let it go when we know we could have done something to make it better for a fellow sufferer? How could we ever live it down? And then, how can we question why there is so much pain in this world? There is, but there could have been so much less. You and I know that we have not done all we could have. What are we doing now? What can we do later? So much more, so much more.
We are a lonely race and adversity is the only trial that brings us together. It’s unfortunate but the only way to make our selfish souls see, realise and reach out to alleviate the sufferings of others. Will we let their sacrifices go to waste all over again? Or will we develop our compassion to stop this constant massacre that plagues our humanity in all imaginable and unimaginable areas? When people gather together and rush to scenes of desperate need, giving all they can, our hearts mend a little and become a little fuller than before.
In all the darkness and confusion, can we, will we become beautiful and bring out the best in all of us? Or shall we remain vacant and bitter, dying without ever knowing or giving real love?
