Don’t you love those old comic book heroes and villains and their one-liners? You know, the Joker cackles, “Good bye, Batman! It’s been a laugh!” and Spiderman jokes, “So, Gobby, green with jealousy?” and Catwoman throws the Penguin in a garbage can and stands poised, grinning, “Time to take out the trash.” It’s inevitable. You know you’ll get it the moment you pick up the comic book. And the more you read, the more you find. They’re everywhere.
Have you ever thought about how corny we must sound when we claim to be able to control ourselves? When control is needed, we grit our teeth, close our eyes, and muddle through. But not without some regret. I don’t care what you’re talking about…I could mean anything.
You stand at the edge of temptation, and try to not think about it. You weigh the consequences, decidedly make your choice, and walk away. You NEVER look back, and have NO second thoughts. You are, in fact, the very picture of someone who has their life under control.
Ha! You poor naïve soul. You silly being. You deluded, uninformed coward. Have you any idea of the smallness; of the insignificance; of the minute, incomplete nothingness of your “intelligent” decision? You know NOTHING.
Think of the choices most Christians must make in any country without America’s freedom. Think about China. That incredibly important choice you make in your house, so comfortable, so rich, means nothing compared to the pressure placed upon the very soul of the Asian persecuted. The threat of their entire family’s lives. The future of the unborn children, of the pregnant wife, of the unprotected parents. The looming doom of the torture to their bodies before they finally die.
We can think about it, and try to guess what it’s like from the movies we’ve watched. We can imagine, using the bloodiest, goriest, most graphic images we can summon, but in reality: we have no idea. We’re too spoiled to understand that kind of pressure, that kind of mental turmoil. And ultimately, it damns us. Spiritually, we forsake them, and leave them there to their untimely, animalistic deaths.
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Now that I’ve scared myself into a darkness of my own making, and left behind any common sense to prohibit me from moving into that self-inflicted hell, I can stand back up (however shakily) and proclaim my innocence.
Innocence? Don’t use that word around me. You have no intention of helping, in any way. Do you move there to offer your own body? NO! Do you let those pitiful commercials move you enough to give even a nickel of your oh-so-precious money to those in need? NO! Can you even say you pray for them regularly? NO!! NO, NO, NO! You are DAMNED! DAMNED TO THE HELL YOU FEAR SO BADLY!!
Ah, so there it is. That’s how we think. The concentration trained on the countries oversees has blinded us to the unimaginable sin happening in the Land of Opportunity herself. We live in this huge country, full of money, and power, and influence, and all we do is complain. We moan about the taxes, and we cry about the homosexuals, and we gripe about the abortion, and we raise the roof over the corruption in politics. But the only time you ever see us really go to work on something is when our own comfort is threatened. We’ll jump when we hear about our tax-deductible tithes being put in jeopardy, but when they announce the outrageous rules catering to gays, we sit back and complain a little. Why is that?
Because it’s true- we ARE lazy Americans. We’re too used to having someone else do it for us. And it’s also true that we really don’t care like we should. But should this hinder us anymore? Will we wake up and attempt to change something, now that we know it?
Instead of focusing on other countries, why don’t we reach out to those in our own? And sure, you’ve heard it before, but does anyone actually do it? Are we as aggressive in our ministry here as we are in Hungary, or China, or India? All the poor countries are given heed…but why not focus all our energy, all our resources, all our time and money…on the people here, in America?
And sure, there are those who are called to be ministers to other countries. You feel a calling for China, and you go. And Godspeed. But for those who don’t feel like that…why not? Why not be a citizen in the country you eventually help to turn around? How would it look if Jesus came back tomorrow and found out that we Americans went to 130 other countries, and lived like the poor inhabitants, and ministered to millions…but their OWN country was on the same path as Sodom and Gomorrah, or possibly worse? Wouldn’t it look pretty bad?
What if we all took a good long gaze at the garbage in America? What if we quit worrying about the temptation we have to face, and actually DID something about it? What if we all got off our lazy Christian-American butts and took the time to take out the trash in our own land?
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