A Light Rising In The Darkness

Tonight was a tough night at our youth worship service...Not just because students were a little more rowdy and "caffeinated" than usual, but because of the topic that we dealt with. Tonight I talked to our students about the AIDS epidemic that is destroying Africa. I have been involved with different types of AIDS and poverty related groups such as One Life Revolution, World Vision, and Compassion International for a couple years now. So tonight I shared with our students the heartbreaking statistics related to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa - that 8,800 people are infected daily with HIV, 1,400 of whom are infected newborns through there mothers milk - that every 14 seconds a child is orphaned in Africa because of AIDS - that 30 million of the 40 million people with HIV live in Africa - that more people die from AIDS in Africa EVERY WEEK than the total of all the American casualties of the Vietnam War - that a major reason that young girls (almost 60% of Africans with HIV are female) contract the HIV virus is because many countries have myths that teach that sexual relations with a virgin cures a person from AIDS...The statistics go on and on...You can check them out for yourself at oneliferevolution.org, worldvision.org/hope, or data.org.
Then I shared with them a scene from the popular movie Hotel Rwanda which my wife had shared with me last night. In the scene the Rwandan hotel manager is so happy that the American journalist caught the horrible atrocities on tape and is planning to show them on US news. The journalist, Jack, replies by saying, "I think if people see this footage, they'll say, 'Oh my God, that's horrible.' And then they'll go on eating their dinners." Unfortunately that is how many people in the church have responded to the AIDS crisis in Africa.
I think it is time for people who claim to follow Jesus and claim to be his disciples to start loving people in practical and real ways. To start being a light rising in the darkness. For me and my students this means getting involved in the AIDS epidemic. We are planning to raise funds to help support orphans and AIDS relief in Africa through World Vision as a part of ONE LIFE REVOLUTION...If you haven't heard of them, I really encourage you to check it out...Their slogan is "You have one life. Do something." That is what we as a student ministry are challenging ourselves to do. We realize that we may not change the entire continent of Africa and that our meager efforts will not make massive changes in the overall epidemic. But it will matter to some. We will not sit back and watch from our couches...We will be involved, one life at a time.
And I believe that if Jesus was on earth today, he would be hanging out in places like Africa, ministering to hurting children and orphans. So I want to be there too...If not in physical presence, then by giving to support the work that is being done to impact the world, one life at a time. And I believe that is what God desires of us. In Isaiah 58 God is rebuking the people for their empty acts of worship, specifically fasting. His indictment against them is that their religion has become empty and simply ritual because it does not affect the way that they live their daily lives. (What an idictment on believer today as well!) And in the middle of the chapter God responds to the people with these words:

If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like noonday.

When I think about what I want my life to be, this rings so real to my heart. I want a light that rises in the darkness. I've got one life...I'm gonna do something.