Well, if you have been watching the news, the ten "missionaries" have been released by the authorities in Haiti.
I understand wanting to help orphans. I understand wanting to save starving children. I may even bend some laws to do that. But to try to take a bus load of them across a national border without proper documentation is hard to believe.
I think the thing that bothers me the most about the story is the report that some of the children were not orphans, and that the children told the "missionaries" that they were not orphans. Couple this with the "we are just here doing God's work" language that the missionaries were using, and the whole thing starts to hurt.
I hurt for the parents of the children who let their children go in hopes that they would have a better life. I hurt for the entire population of Haiti that lost so much in the earthquake. I hurt for the younger members of the mission team, they look like minors, and they were led into this by adults from their church.
I hurt for the public who reads this story and has an interesting conclusion to make. Either God does not care about immigration laws, and either God isn't always truthful, or these people did not hear from God.
I guess one of the morals of this story is that we need to be very careful when we say, "God spoke to me" or "God is leading me." It is very easy for us to get our human selves in the way, and as soon as that happens, God ends up looking a little foolish.
Like if a person says, "God gave me this wonderful house." [the payment is really high and we can't afford to do other things that we should be doing, but God gave me this house.] What about the people that God didn't give a house to? What are we really saying?
It is just far to easy to justify our human decisions by somehow attaching God to them. Here is the bottom line: When you are doing God's work, you don't have to announce it, everyone will see it for what it is. If you are the Son of God, you don't have to go around telling everyone, because people will figure out who you are. Just do and be what you are supposed to do and be and let other people tell you that you are doing God's work. The story ends a lot better that way.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
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5 comments:
Thank you for saying something that needs to be pointed out. So many people call really bad decisions a "God thing," seemingly to help justify a "self thing."
AMEN and Amen
I couldn't agree more. Well said.
Your blog this morning reminded me of comments that I have heard following several disasters...both man-made and natural.
An acquaintance whose daughter was scheduled to be in the towers on 911 and through a series of events was prevented from being there, commented at a party that "God didn't want her daughter to die!" I cringed because to me that was like saying that God did want all those other people to die that day.
Following Katrina in New Orleans, I heard commented by someone I know "God reaked havoc on the people of New Orleans because of their sinful ways!" Ugh! Did God reak havoc on all the "good" people, too?
And then more recently the comment made by O.R., implying that God wanted this to happen to the people in Haiti.
When our daughter and husband were flooded out in Hurricane Wilma after just completely redoing their home inside and out and putting it on the market a week before the storm, I often caught myself thinking "Oh, why couldn't they have sold that house before the storm?" Then I would catch myself. Did I really want that to happen to anyone else, either? No! Emphatically, no! It was a terrible thing and, certainly, I didn't want them to have to go through it...but their lives were spared and they are probably stronger for having gone through it together.
Now I come to my cancer...No one wants cancer. Certainly I didn't; and choose never to have it again...if it works out that way. But someone asked me if I ever asked myself "Why me?" After thinking briefly about it, I answered "No" because I wouldn't wish it on anyone else! That simple! I certainly asked all the other questions like "How in the world did I get this? What do I do to get rid of the cancer? etc." But to ask "Why me?" would imply that I felt I wasn't deserving of it and someone else was.
Which brings me back to what I want to say and I believe. These things just do happen; they are part of life...and then there are victims. God loves us all...no matter what. He loves us. Even those that we may feel are different from us...or even really cruel, dispicable people, such as Osama Bin Laden. There is a place in God's heart for even him. It isn't my humanness that feels that way, certainly not...it is my faith in God that knows that God can change hearts. He changed Paul. Anything is possible; nothing is outside His realm of ability.
I know I've rambled a bit. Please forgive me. :)
Mary Ann
Coming off the field with his MVP award, Saints Quarterback Drew Brees declared "GOD IS GREAT!"
I don't argue the fact that "God is Good/Great," but in Drew's excitement it appears he believes God had a hand in the Saint's victory. I don't personally believe God has a hand in "zero sum games", games of winner and loser. I just finished reading John Ortberg, "When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box." The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Thanks for this post
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