Driving to work today and listening to news, there was a
report of continuous killing of young men in the NE county of Mandera, Kenya,
bordering Somalia. It was focused on a village that was burying their 47th
young man killed in 2016. The journalist was curious to know why young people
still choose to travel to Mandera with the risk of being killed by terrorist
and he was told by one interviewee that people go out there because they make more
money in a day in Mandera than they would have in four months in their village.
‘When living takes the second seat’, I thought.
I know in one of my articles I wrote about living and being
alive – it’s a recurrent comparison in my head I must have written about it. Anyway,
that is not the point here. The point is people have been subjected to a state
of depravity and desperation dying becomes more important than living. Immigration
to Europe has become an EU problem – immigration through dangerous routes. People
who have never seen a stream going across the sea; people who can’t imagine how
wide the Sahara Desert is decide to attempt to traverse it into Europe, even on
Camels; young girls with or without degrees scorn at articles about abuse of
their kind in SE Asian countries and the Middle East and still stake their
families’ wealth in order to travel to these places and join the others living
in sub-human conditions.
Just like so many things happening in my country these days,
there are a lot of situations you can’t understand unless you live them. How can
the risk of dying be more important than life? Why do these young people go
through all these, with good knowledge of the dangers in a-yonder? I’ve obviously
never been in that state, never felt that way, but I know one thing – for me to
live is Christ and to die is gain!
2 Corinth 3:17 – ‘Where the Lord is there is the Spirit and
where there is the Spirit there is Freedom.’ Freedom will not make troubles go
away, it will not put food on the table, but it will give life a meaning. If
you find freedom in these dangerous adventures in search of daily bread, by all
means forge ahead. If you find freedom in staying back in your village, you got
my respect as well. Just be free! It is challenging to talk about these things
to people who can’t even have bread for today, let alone think about bread for tomorrow…
to whom posterity is like trying to reach the horizon… but the Word of God is
real for everyone in every circumstance – trust God, the God who opened the
heavens and rained down manna to a people who were already complaining and
losing trust. Shalom Peace has nothing to do with physical peace, just sleep
through the turmoil. Jesus slept through a storm that threatened their boat. I’m
not saying all will be dandy and cool, but things will be better.
My heart bleeds at these news reports, it’s sad and it’s
real. The future is dying in search of better lives. God created this world
with enough for everyone but greed has eaten up the very core of humanity. While
others live lavishly, their neighbors are dying in search of better lives. God’s
ultimate command is the solution to the world’s problems – ‘Love your neighbor
as yourself’ – Love yourself, dying can’t be better than life, unless it is
dying in gain because you lived in Christ. To the rest of the world Love
Everyone!
Shalom!
