A crying baby on my flight? That is so cliché. Luckily, my flight is not particularly lengthy, but it allows me just enough time remind myself that this baby's audible weeping is merely a small fraction of what our whole world is feeling at any given moment. For this baby, crying is one of his or her (I can't see it from my seat) two modes: sleeping or crying. But in a very real way, our world is in a constant state of suffering. The Apostle Paul, in one of my favorite passages of scripture, puts it this way:
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22-23)
I sometimes wonder how we manage to insulate ourselves from this pain which was so evident to Paul. In in the United States, we have built a system that promotes comfort. The trajectory of science, technology and all our institutions is towards whatever is easier, less painful, and less time consuming. Occasionally we get a glimpse of what is ailing us, sometimes in the form a the death of a loved one or an economic collapse. We see things that most agree, “Should not be this way,” and we decide that all our resources should be allocated to preventing this catastrophe from ever happening again. This pain management system we've developed is more laughable than laudable.
I sometimes wonder what our society would look like if we embraced the hurting world around us. Would we have reality television shows where contestants must be homeless for an alloted period of time? Would we have shows where contestants must actually survive in Third World conditions? Could we ever get to the point where war, disease, or oppression ever become subjects for our entertainment? The answer is probably not, but we have done a great job at removing these eyesores from our everyday life. Whenever you go to the grocery store, what are all the tabloids talking about? Celebrity relationships or infidelities, government coverups and which American Idol contestant has a secret life we don't know about What if our tabloids and some of our less refined magazines only reported on the terrible things going on in the world? What if some story about a “balloon boy” failed to capture the attention of the news networks because they were reporting on malaria deaths, genocides, tribal wars and starving children?
I am sick to my stomach sometimes because all I ever do is complain about the ignorance or insolence of Americans, but I myself fail to hear the groaning of the world around me. Even more than that, I fail to respond to the the groaning when I do hear it. I must confess that I am scared to death when I read the words of Jesus:
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. "Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:24-25)
Knowing what I know, perhaps I should be joining the baby in tears.
