With my thoughts and prayers on the recent natural disaster in Japan I can't help but be deeply saddened. This broken world is forcefully beaten in again. Sometimes I wonder if it can just end today, because it's only a matter of time before it happens to you and I. We try to stay safe but sooner or later the earthquake strikes and we look around and see those we love die before our eyes. It's tragedy.
Why, then, is it so hard for us to relate? We are bombarded with these images of disaster daily. Hollywood makes money off of them, it's only a matter of time before a Haiti movie is released to critical acclaim. It'll probably star Don Cheadle.
When I look at the cities and countries feeling devastation, I think, it's hard for us to relate because we are all our own cities. Each individual is a little city walking around. There are hurricanes and earthquakes happening in each of us. We can't see outside of our own city because we're trying to deal with the tragedy within each of us. The tragedy that bends and breaks our will. We must feel something to relate to something and this is the only way I can personally relate to those in Japan right now. Although they are facing outer unrest due to the tragedy caused to their country, each Japanese person is facing an inner unrest.
Imagine, we're all walking down the street and the earth is shaking inside of us. The wind is destroying deep within us, and the waves are crashing down.
I don't want to dwell on Japan or any other disaster ridden country (Haiti is nowhere near back to "normal"). I am my own disaster ridden country. I am my own city, flooded and desecrated.
But I must realize that the only way out of the inner unrest, the inner brokenness; is to attempt to sacrifice my unrest for someone elses. Though the unrest in me is growing, that doesn't separate me from the entirety of humanity. My own disaster filled city is not an excuse. We like to dwell on our inner unrest but the only way to fix it is to step outside of it.