Bursting My Bubble

After hearing Ali Eastburn’s story about how God spoke to her about her ring (click here to read it) and that she had a dream that included a scene from Schindler’s List, I knew that I was going to have to watch the movie. I had avoided it due to the fact that I knew it would break my heart. Well, I watched it today. Even though I knew what it was about and the movie itself was exactly what I expected it to be, I am physically sick.

There were a few scenes from the movie that I cannot get out of my mind. The first one is when Schindler is trying to setup his first purchase of Jewish workers from the Nazi officer. Schindler asks him how much a life is worth and the man replies, “No, no, no you tell me. How much it is worth to you.” I have never thought about that. 

How much is a life actually worth to me?

Is it worth me being inconvenienced? Is it worth me giving up something that I want but don’t need? Is it worth me giving up something I need because someone else has a greater need? This question is already haunting me…. at what cost is a human life worth to me?

The second scene happens at the end of the movie when Schindler is leaving and the 1,100 people that he saved surround him, he starts to look at his possessions. As he lists all of the things he still owns and how many people he could have saved had he sold each item he begins to break down. It was at the end when he could do no more that his vision was finally completely clear. He understood that his possessions actually equaled human life. Will I only truly comprehend that once my chance to make a difference has passed?


Also, related to this movie, I cannot get out of my mind the stories I have heard about Christian churches that were along the route that the trains would take to the concentration camps and these churches rearranged their services so that when the trains came by they were singing hymns at the top of their lungs in order to drown out the screaming of the people heading towards death.

These church attenders were singing HYMNS to GOD while HIS people were being taken to their death.

I have to ask myself the same question. Is that what I do? Is that what our American Churches are doing? There are people dying everyday without knowing Jesus. There are more slaves NOW than at ANY other time in history. Armies are stealing children and forcing them to murder. They are mutilating, raping and killing entire villages of women and children. The rate that children are being trafficked is mind-blowing and the fact that every minute 4 children die from a dirty-water related disease is appalling. Yet, here we are building bigger churches, bigger programs, more expensive homes, higher lifestyles and buying nicer clothes. Everything has become all about me, me, me.

I’d like to think that had I been living in Germany at the time of the Holocaust that I would have tried to do something about it, no matter the cost. I’d like to think that if an atrocity of that magnitude was being committed and I knew about it that I would fight for a change and come to the aid of those being hurt. But I think the way I live my life points to a harsh truth.

An atrocity is happening now… 

and although I have done a little to try and help I haven’t really inconvenienced myself or given up something incredibly significant in order to make a change. When will my vision be clear as to the battle that is raging and the role I am to play? Will it be after it is too late?

The atrocities happening now may not be as organized or directly aimed as the Holocaust was but let me tell you, there are still millions of people dying while I live my life in my happy, middle class bubble.

What will I say to God when He asks me how I spent my life? What will I say to Him when He asks me how I used the gifts and talents He gave me? What will I say to Him when He asks me how I used the blessings He provided me?

May God grow in me a heart that is so tuned in to His love and justice for the fatherless, the widowed, the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and imprisoned that I cannot rest.


Comments

Popular Posts