Another terrorist attack happened a few weeks ago. This time in Brussels, Belgium. It hit me hard, almost as hard as when the Paris attacks happened while I was study abroad in England. My heart is still racing.
I have several friends over in England and Spain right now. They are all safe, but they have been traveling lately since it is break during the semester for them. The fact that the attacks happened in airports, busy areas, and subways made me realize how many times I have used airports and subways and busy areas in the past few months, especially while traveling in England. It could have been me. It could be you.
And yet....
Do we really care in America? Be honest. What did you do when you thought of Brussels the day of the attack? Did you think about it the entire day? Did you feel sad? Did you feel your heart breaking? Did you get angry? Are you still thinking about it?
I felt my heart break. But, I did not think about it every hour of that day, mainly because of the point that I want to get to. In America, we are cut off from Europe and the Middle East and Africa where major terrorist attacks are happening. When we see things happening far away we think: 'Oh, that is really sad, I'm sorry that happened.' But since it isn't close, it doesn't have the significance it should. It doesn't hurt us in the way it should. We feel sad for about five minutes, and then we go on with our lives not even thinking about the hurt that people thousands of miles away are feeling because it didn't happen to us...it didn't happen to our friends...it didn't happen a few miles away from me. And yet, our world is hurting. We need to care. We need to not just dismiss when things happen that hurt other people other than ourselves.
The past few weeks there have been attacks in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey, through car bombs and explosions in crowded areas. But I have sadly only seen one of my friends post about it on Facebook when they happened. He grew up there so it hit him hard. No one has talked about the hurt that has happened there. The same thing goes for Nigeria and other African countries that have had terrorist attacks. As well as the hundreds of terrorist attacks in the Middle East that are not even reported on in the news because they are not deemed "important enough" or "newsworthy" because there are so many and they get "old." It is only after this attack that I have seen people talking about the other attacks that have happened recently.
Excuse me? Terrorist attacks are "old news" because they happen all the time in these places? Uh, no. That is extremely sad. That is something that needs to be talked about. We need to hear the hurt in the world even if it does hurt to receive it. We need to be aware. We need to not be so self-centered and apathetic.
During chapel at school I had this weird out of body experience. Sometimes I am able to take myself out of the environment and look at it like I'm above the situation and analyze the situation in this way. And that day I realized that the life we live, the world we live in, is like a really complex fiction story. It has all the pieces just like our favorite stories. It has God. It has Jesus, which is the character who dies to save the others. There are the "villains" and the "heroes" and the "ordinary man."
The question we need to ask ourselves is: what character are we? Who are we in the world? We may not be able to "fix" the world and stop these attacks, but we can start with caring. We can start with sending relief to those people affected. We can start by praying for those people. Prayer can be powerful. It can change nations, lives, and situations, even if we may not see it on a large scale.
Because we are not cut off from these attacks. It could be you. It could be your neighbor. The thing with terrorist attacks is we don't know when they will happen or where. That is what a terrorist attack is.
We need to care. We need to not think that this won't happen to us...it only happens to them. When the Paris attacks happened, I went to London the next day and realized that I could not come back. We had no idea if London was a target as it just across the channel. I had no idea if a bomb would go off in the underground or at the Doctor Who convention I was attending. But then I realized something, we need to be aware of the hurt and the ruin going on the world, but we do not have to be afraid. We have a hope in God. We can put our trust in Him. Even when bad things happen like this, we do know that in the end, the story does end happily. Sometimes that means people die who don't deserve it. And people live who don't deserve it (As Gandalf tells Frodo in the Fellowship of the Ring). "Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life." When you read a book and something bad happens to your favorite character or a horrific battle is portrayed, there is always hope at the end of the tunnel even if you hate it at the time and want to change the story (or rewrite the ending to make it happier).
We need to care. We need to be informed of every horrific attack. We need to pray.
I knew God was caring for me and my friend Elissa that day in London. And I knew that even if something happened, I would have God with me everywhere. And that gave me peace.
Don't just pray for one place. Pray for the world. And remember even through the hurt, there is light there. Through the darkness, there are rays of hope. And remember the people everywhere who are victims of the hurt in the world.
