Will I answer the call??

Each time I watch a movie like Schindler's List, or Hotel Rwanda, I come face to face with a bit of myself. I ALWAYS wonder... would I be one who would risk my family and my life to help others? Would I be willing to flaunt the law to protect those who are being persecuted? Or would I close my eyes and rationalize away my own protectionism? Would I have the eyes to see the bigger evils at stake? The Germans in WWII didn't flip a switch and start murdering Jews, there was an insidious campaign that took time to reveal it's true intent.

Would I see it? Would I stand with those who DO see it and help them, or would I lock my doors and huddle in my living room watching it all on CNN?

My brave self says Yes! I would be like them! I would fling open the doors, face the rebels and protect the victims with the strength of my beliefs. And yet... too often when someone is dying in front of me, I turn away. I don't give them the help they desperately need. When some one's life is clearly under attack by an enemy I can easily identify, but choose to say nothing, they cannot protect themselves.

I am not talking about the physical world, I doubt very many of us would actually turn away. I am talking about the spiritual world. The people all around us are dying, they are under attack. They are busy living their lives not realizing what is coming their way, or worse, they are resigned to their fate.

Isn't that what we as Christians believe? That everyone who has not received Christ is destined for a holocaust?

And yet, SO many times, as Christians we have been taught (rightly in some ways) to keep our lives unsullied by the things of the world.... yet in doing that, are we closing our doors to the refugees? To those who need shelter? "the least of these?".

If this world truly is NOT our home as the Bible teaches, (The IF comes not from the truth of the Bible, but the IF is about our beliefs) then don't we have a privilege of obligation to open up our doors, and risk that which isn't even ours for the good of those around us?

How would our lives and conduct change if we could actually see the enemy as in 1 Peter 5:8?

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him,firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

My prayer is that when I encounter people who don't know God, whose lives are under attack, that I would have the courage, and the willingness to open the door to my heart, and stand alongside them in the battle and shelter them from those who would see to destroy them.

This dirty, gritty walk flows counter to the pretty self-esteem building message that so many of us are fed in our North American churches. Let's not forget, Jesus' message was dangerous, it was heavy and it called people to risk their lives for its sake. When was the last time you (I say to myself) risked anything but your 'pride' to reach out to those who are dying?