our protective bubbles

Not too long ago I listened to a sermon. A sermon about how most of us tend to live in protective bubbles consisting of our safe lives, family and careers. We don't want to face the world around us. A world of pain and suffering. Of 26.500 children dying every day from hunger and poverty. Facing it is too hard, too painful, too overwhelming. So we live in our protective bubbles, protecting us from anything raw and too upsetting. If we are faced with it, we change the channel or turn the newspaper page. But Jesus didn't turn his back on the suffering. He was "a man of sorrow.. acquainted with grief". He had compassion for the sick, the widows and the orphans. He didn't protect himself from the pain of the world, the pain of people. Instead it broke his heart and moved him. Shouldn't our hearts be broken by the things that break the heart of God?

But a broken heart, that's hard. It hurts. It's much easier to not face it. To not think about the many parents out there even in our little part of the world that have lost a child or am going to, knowingly or unknowingly. Even I don't want to think about it at times. It's hard to keep on just doing your daily life once your thoughts are on the pain and suffering, to be unaffected. Yesterday I heard of a couple loosing 4 daughters age 2-11 in a fire. How devastated they must be. And yet the world continues on like nothing has happened. At least so it seems. I remember going shopping shortly after I lost Kathleen. Everybody around me was just going about their daily business. I wanted to scream. I wanted them to know that I had just lost my precious baby. That my world was collapsing. But inside I knew that no one really wanted to talk about it. And still don't. Unless they too have lost.. The death of a child seems to be a taboo subject. Why? Is it because it's too painful to talk about, to think about? Is it because they don't want to be reminded that awful things happen, and that it could possibly happen to them? Or do they think it's just best to forget and move on? But there is no moving on after the loss of a child. We can only move forward, slowly. We will never forget. We don't want to. We shouldn't. Rather we should use that pain to help others. Others in pain.

How can we make a difference in this broken world? By facing it. By facing the broken people, the pain and suffering. Let's rejoice with those who rejoice; but mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15).

Let's face the world, good and bad.

Let's burst our protective bubbles.

A gift from http://namesinthesand.blogspot.com/
They burst their bubble, and faced the pain.
May God bless them as they help others.