Blindness / Injustice

Last week I wrote about sacrifice; the giving up of something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. I've been prompted to think about this as a result of getting involved with World Vision Activism Network who, throughout lent, are encouraging people to really explore what sacrifice is, and what it means for a 21st century world.

I was watching the video from World Vision with the challenge this week, and there was this one phrase that really caught me off guard: "Often we lose sight of the people, places and issues that are really important to us…"

It's interesting how a couple of unrelated events can tie together; last Sunday morning at church John Bell was speaking to us from John 12; the raising of Lazarus, and he kept repeating the concept that the world we live is not the way it is supposed to be… so how do we respond to it?

If I'm honest with myself I look at the world with selective sight. I see the things I want to see, and my eyes slips past the things I don't want to see. It is this that brought me to my initial response to this challenge - "How quickly do we become blind to a broken world; we may see the injustice, but does it break us?" I'm coming to realise how often I become accepting and unthinking to many of the situations I see everyday.

John was challenging to us to see the world as Jesus sees the world, looking at Jesus' response to the death of Lazarus. He sees the death of a brother and a friend ripping apart a family and the effect that it has on the community around them. But more than that, Jesus sees the world that He has created falling apart and he is outraged by it. But despite this anger, there is a deep sorrow for a world that is not the way it is supposed to be. The way these two emotions work together is really powerful: "outrage makes us bold, sorrow keeps us gentle". Outrage without sorrow makes us arrogant, while sorrow without outrage makes us sentimental but ineffective. Here I think Jesus demonstrates what it means to be truly heart broken by a situation; outraged and sorrowful working together.

Are we broken by the injustice in the world we see? Do we allow ourselves to be interrupted by it? Or do we just harden and close ourselves off to it in the busyness of our lives? One of my prayers this week is that Jesus would open my eyes to see the world as he sees it; to rejoice in all that is good, but to be broken by what cause him to be broken.

I've been listening to Brandon Heath's song titled 'Give Me Your Eyes', the lyrics reflect my prayers this week, I want to encourage you to watch the video below and listen to the lyrics.

Play Video: Brandon Heath – Give me Your Eyes

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Footnotes:

• The sermon from John Bell can be downloaded from the MRC website.
• A full wallpaper of the banner image can be downloaded from my profile on the World Vision Activism site.