three things

What to do in the face of the unbearable?

Every day, Canon Andrew White's facebook page brings fresh horrors. At last, the newspapers are catching up to the shock of what is happening in Iraq, and the US are there in military force. Britain is offering humanitarian aid.

What can we do?

Three things:

1. Pray.
It's always the first. When we sink beneath the waves of life, we find Jesus' arm lifting us up. We look to Jesus. We call to him. He is our first, our last, our middle, our beginning, our end, our journey. If we don't pray, we are practising atheists.

What do we pray for?
For those who have nothing. For those who are dying on mountainsides. For those who have been turfed out of house and home. For hope in despair. For material relief. For those who have to help those who have not.
For change.
For mercy.
For those with military power, that it gets used wisely and not ultimately to everyone's detriment.
For those who are right now making the world a terrible place: they are people too. We pray for them.
We pray for ourselves - that we might not be impotent, and that we might somehow help.
And we pray that we might forgive & be forgiven, and that in our lives, where there are poor and forgotten people, we would reach out and remember and do something - or our tears over those far away are unconvincing.

2. Speak.
In these last weeks, many folk have been speaking on the internet and in private to people who are more powerful than you and I, and though it has taken time - now things are happening.
We carry on.
In whatever pulpit you have, speak.
Speak so that people hear the voice of those who are being silenced.
Write to your MP (or equivalent).
Participate in online conversations.
Talk about these issues - and be informed. Read newspapers, follow Andrew White's page & blog, as unbearable as it it. Tell others.

3. Be Generous.
This is practical love.
The UK government has pledged £8M of aid - that sounds a lot, but when you see the numbers of displaced people already, and the money it takes to get the aid there, this will go quickly.
Support our fellow Christians who have had their lives destroyed.
Read the Barnabas Fund page & give; they are constantly helping persecuted Christians all over the world. Iraq is their front page right now. Or if you prefer, give through the Christian Aid appeal, or the Red Cross.

We get faced with unbearable news stories. But we aren't living in the middle of these stories. So we aren't actually feeling the waves crashing over us: others are. Let's pray in every way we can, speak of their plight to those with the power to do something, and give to those who are going out there and making their lives that but better.