Haunted

If you frequent the adoption blogosphere, or perhaps even if you don't, you may have seen this image:

Look. It's sickening, but look. The photographer won a Pulitzer prize for this particular photograph. In it, a Sudanese child is curled up on the ground, starving; a vulture waits patiently behind her, ready to feast on the dying child.

Do you know the rest of the story?
The photographer, Kevin Carter, took this photograph during his time working as a journalist during the apartheid in South Africa.
He won a prize for this photograph. A prize that any photojournalist would covet. A prize that gives his name rank among the best photographers across the globe.

Do you know the rest of the story?
Shortly after winning his Pulitzer prize, he killed himself.
Kevin Carter was so haunted by the images imprinted on his heart, that he could no longer bear to live.


He's not the only witness to the atrocities across the globe. Many have seen, experienced, lived horrors that are so difficult to fathom, so unbelievable to imagine, that it sickens me just to even try to understand.

I get why people look the other way. The pain of knowing the truth, even just a small fraction of the truth, is so overwhelming, that it feels better just to push it out of mind altogether.

You know who doesn't ever get to push it away, though?
God.

He sees it all. He experiences it all. He feels the pain and suffering. Day and night, without rest, he lives it.
There's no break for God. No turning the other way. No pushing it out of his mind so that he doesn't have to think about it.

Why is it that we think it should be any different for us? Why shouldn't we be haunted? If our goal as Christians is to live Christ-like lives, doesn't that mean facing the pain as much as we welcome the joy?

In fact, God's already responded to that question.

Proverbs 24: 11-12

 ¹¹Deliver those who are being taken away to death,
         And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back.

¹²If you say, "See, we did not know this,"
         Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?
         And does He not know it who keeps your soul?
         And will He not render to man according to his work?

You've seen it. You know the truth. Once your eyes are opened, it is your responsibility to act upon it.

Action.

That's what He calls from us. He doesn't tell us to forget it, to avoid it, to go on passively through life.

So? Are you haunted? Because if you are, if you can search deep down and find something that moves your soul, you've got direct orders from the Boss himself to do something about it.