Be the Light

The world woke up to news of unimaginable horror in Paris this morning.  Most of us went to bed with the news alerts last night.  We woke up hoping for better news.  Needing better news.

Maybe you cried for the lives lost in yet another senseless tragedy, and the families affected. Perhaps you checked on your children an extra time last night, taking in their simple peace as they slept.  Maybe you greeted them a little more exuberantly this morning, grateful for another day with them.    Perhaps you said an extra prayer, posted a message to social media, or just closed your eyes and shook your head, because that was all you could do.

For the families who will now be burying their loved ones, we need to be in thought and prayer.

At a time when we should be coming together, instead, we choose sides. We focus on the bad, rather than encouraging the good. We pick on petty things. We are offended by holiday sweaters, and the lack of design on a red cup.  We are offended by what 'he' said, but stand up for 'her' right to say it.  We have become whiners and complainers.  We are offended by everything, anything, and nothing at all.  We are a society of gigantic, political-correctedness-run-amok, offended babies.

Our world is at war, whether it's been politically sanctioned or not.  Sadly, we are not in a time of peace. We are being attacked by those who know how to quietly infiltrate our systems.  We are at war not just with terrorists, but with ourselves, within our own nations.  Our children do not know a life without loss, without war, without unrest and fear.

Homelessness and poverty rates are at all time highs throughout the world.  Joblessness is still high.  There are children everywhere in need of stable homes and loving families.  There are children who go to school improperly clothed and hungry, and there are still more who don't get to go to school at all.  Babies are being killed before they even have a chance to tell their story.  Children in other countries are kidnapped and forced into war, or worse.  Our own veterans are abandoned by those who are supposed to help them, suffering from PTSD and committing suicide daily. God is being denied and ignored.  Parents are losing their children to diseases, both preventable and not preventable.  Human beings are killing each other over things like shoes, sideways glances and perceived wrong-doings. Injustice is confused for justice.  I could go on, but I won't.  Just read the news.

You have a chance to be the light, to be the love, to be the difference, to be Christ in action. You can be the good in just one person's day.  You can do something, anything, and everything.  "Be the change you wish to see in the world," Mahatma Gandhi.

Or, you can choose to do nothing, and continue complaining about the red cup and sweater.