Injustice and Disgust

Today, I was listening to the song Anger and Apathy by As I Lay Dying, and it lead me to think back to a message that I have recently heard about serving God by taking action in our community. The speaker was from a missionary team working in Zimbabwe, Africa, serving the hungry, homeless, and many orphaned children. In conjunction with the message, specific lines from the song lead me to formulate the following thoughts.

Many of us have allowed our centers of attention to be shifted and focused on our immediate surroundings, our zones of comfort in which we feel familiarity. So to speak, “Many of us have turned off the light outside, erasing what exists beyond our front door”. Our attention is focused so heavily on our everyday and comfortable environment, that we often forget what really happens in the outside world. Most of us are not exposed to suffering and injustice on a daily basis; and unless we are, it is very easy to let our focus be constrained to our immediate cozy environment. Fueled by feelings of apathy, this narrow-sightedness can lead us to ignore and forget the signs of suffering, sin, and injustice that are prevalent in our world. We are blind so to speak to the negative situations that cause us disgust at the mere thought of, let alone experiencing them. “Like a colorless sky over a sea of nothingness, hatred faces its enemies while apathy strikes furtively”.We focus our selective-attention on our bubbles of interactions, while at the same time abandoning all thought of the rest of the world in the hope of distancing ourselves from any connection. Our fellow humans that are suffering in turmoil become faceless beings that are cast aside and forced outside of our thoughts.

However, I strongly believe that this is not how the Lord wishes us to live. If we as Christians are to believe that God is disgusted by sin, injustice, and the suffering of His children, then why are we not disgusted as well? How can we claim to be faithful servants of the Lord if we intentionally cast aside our thoughts and concerns for our brothers and sisters suffering in turmoil. Where is our disgust with the fact that millions of people are homeless and suffering from starvation and other illnesses? All over the world there are people who are “striving for identity, buried by our lack of interest, souls marked as mere history”.

But it is not enough to just be disgusted with the things that disgust God, but we must also act to bring aid to those in need. Jesus did not just stand around while being disgusted with how the world was, he acted. Jesus was a mover and a shaker, and we as Christians can learn a lot from His teachings. “How much grievance will it take to awaken us from the comfort of our homes?”. When are we going to step up to the plate and accept our role and responsibilities as followers of Christ? Will we think about what disgusts ourselves as well as God, and more importantly will we act to bring aid to those in need? For without action, the benefits of mere thought are severely limited. “Until our anger burns against injustice, we will create the faceless by dismissing those forced to concede”. Only by taking action and bringing the fight against the causes of our disgust, are we able to help those in need whose faces we have so easily forgotten.