In 2014, the world worried with the hundreds of family members terrified after a Boko Haram raid took over 200 girls from Chibok, Nigeria. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls trended on Twitter thanks to the many world leaders, including Michelle Obama, who were putting international pressure on the Nigerian government to do something about that awful kidnapping. Although over 150 girls either escaped or were released, over 100 are still missing four years later.

And Boko Haram just did another mass kidnapping.

Over 50 girls are still missing from an attack on Dapchi, Nigeria, an attack that also stole students from the Government Girls Secondary School. While some girls hid in the bush to avoid capture and eventually returned to the school, Abdullahi Bego, a spokesman for the governor in Yobe state where Dapchi and the school are located, made a statement that over 50 girls were still missing as of Wednesday February 21, 2018. Despite my research, I can find no decrease in those numbers, even as I write this article four days later.

It’s been half a week since this recent attack, and I don’t see any trending hashtags. I didn’t even know about this attack until today. Is it because there are fewer missing girls this time? Is it because we’re all still (rightfully) worried about gun control in the U.S? Are we so absorbed by our own problems that we don’t have the time to care about international ones?

What if a terrorist group broke into one of our schools and stole fifty children? Wouldn’t we want the world’s attention to help hold those terrorists accountable for their crime and keep the government in the hot seat until every last child was brought home safely? Aren’t the American people doing that right now as we try to figure out the balance of justice for the dead children of Parkland and constitutional rights for gun owners? Why can we not offer similar help to the stolen children of Nigeria?

Those are a lot of questions, I know. A lot of accusations that I am equally guilty of. I too turn a blind eye to the outside world as I worry about the little world my worries encompass. How can I pray for and worry about the children of Nigeria while my friend has cancer? How can I focus on a terrorist group like Boko Haram when there’s an intimidating grammar test staring me in the face?

Because God commands me to. In Acts 1:8 when Jesus is ascending to Heaven, He tells His followers that they will receive the Holy Spirit and then be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all over the earth. He calls us to our own place, our own circumstances, but He also calls us to the globe and its circumstances. He understands that what we are dealing with at home is important. But He loves all of His creation enough to point out the importance of the rest of the world to us. While I pray for my friend with cancer, I can also pray for the children of Nigeria. While I work towards a good grade on my grammar test, I can work towards seeing the end of terrorism in my lifetime. By keeping my eyes on Christ, I can balance my world with the rest of the world.

Now, what are you doing? Where are your eyes?