The earth of Haiti quakes and shudders. Life ceases while news channels run endless disaster stories altering my evening TV viewing. Shock and grief glare at me. I’m amazed at my absorption in a tragedy happening thousands of miles away.
I don’t know much about Haiti except its reputation as a poor nation and its popularity with novel writers who like to sprinkle a little voodoo magic over their stories. The recent Haiti earthquake shook that land out of its insignificant and unimportant status. It survives as a tiny country currently capturing international compassion as across the globe hearts experience internal earthquakes.
Many of us do not know how to process death on such a massive scale. How do we walk with people through the process of grieving when they live so far away? Yet, this is one of our highest callings—to weep with those who weep.
To mourn with those who weep, we remember 9/11. We remember the Holocaust. These events happened. They are real. People made it through these catastrophes stronger, wiser, and with the knowledge that all of us can survive horrendous trauma and grief. Hope is based in the reality that others have experienced devastating circumstances and lived to love and laugh again. The healing process starts with shock and grief, but pushes forward in positive action.
Sometimes the Holy interrupts my day with a draw towards an event that has nothing to do with my ordinary life except to alert me to my own mortality and capture my compassion. God designed empathy to be released—mine gushed forth in tears, prayer and donations for Haiti.
How has devastated Haiti captured your heart and what are you doing about it?
In Him together, Susan Gaddis
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