This too shall be made right

People love you the most for the things you hate
And hate you for loving the things you can't keep straight
People judge you on a curve
And tell you you're getting what you deserve
This too shall be made right

Children cannot learn when children cannot eat
Stack them like lumber when children cannot sleep
Children dream of wishing wells
Whose waters quench all the fires of hell
This too shall be made right

The earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
Wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
We say we're just trying to stay alive
But it looks so much more like a way to die
This too shall be made right

There's a time for peace and there is a time for war
A time to forgive and a time to settle the score
A time for babies to lose their lives
A time for hunger and genocide
This too shall be made right

Oh, I don't know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore
I'm trading comfort for human life
And that's not just murder, it's suicide
This too shall be made right

On Wednesday night there was a special on American Idol, it was called Idol Gives Back. American Idol teamed up with the ONE Campaign to raise money for Africa. At the end of it they had a video clip where Bono came in and talked to the six contestants left on American Idol. One of the girls asked bono a question that went something like this: "What was the defining moment for you when you knew you had to do something about what's going on over there?" He answered with a story about when he went to Africa and a man asked him to take his child back with him because he knew his child would have a better life in America. Bono said he didn't take that child, but he has in so many other ways. That got me thinking, "What was my defining moment? When did I start to really care about what's going on over there?" I knew exactly when it was.
First we have to rewind back to the first time I went to Africa. I was 10, so I'm pretty sure I didn't get the full idea of everything that was going on around me. But there were these two kids and I kind-of became friends with them because there weren't all that many people my age there. Their names were Geofferey, who I think was my age, and Moses, who I think was a little bit younger. They are the two kids in the picture at the end of the post. One of them is HIV positive.
Now go back to about a year before I go to Africa the second time, so it's like 2004ish. The Peppers were back on furlow and they were over at our house visiting. I asked how Geofferey and Moses were doing and the answer wasn't good. His sponsor had stopped paying his school fees when he found out he was HIV positive and now the medicine was too expensive. The Peppers weren't sure if he would be there when they got back.
Now it's summer of 2005 and we're in Uganda. Geofferey and Moses are both still there. The reason they are still there is because Dr. Pepper (yes, that's his name) had gotten a lot of free ARV's from different organizations in the US. That's why they're alive.
I think that's when it hit me. When I found out that this disease could have lethally affected someone I met. That made me want to do something about it, to help these kids and all the others like them that have been orphaned by AIDS and now suffer with it themselves.
Derek Webb said in one of his podcasts something like we're supposed to bring the kingdom of God to people. For example, if there's no hunger in the kingdom of God, then we're supposed to bring that about here and feed the hungry. If there's no sickness in the kingdom of God, then we're supposed to heal the sick. If there's no war, no crying, no pain, we're supposed to bring that about here. In the kingdom of God, everything shall me made right. That just opened my eyes. I had never thought about it like that. We have no excuse for not doing anything about it. We join the oppressors of those we choose to ignore. I want to do everything I can to help, but most of the time I get content sitting in my nice brick house in a nice little suburb where everything always comes off as fine. I forget about the hundreds of people dying over there everyday. We trade comfort for human life. Well guess what, this too shall be made right.


Jenna