It has been brought to my attention that we are as materialistic in our best intentions as we are in our everyday consumerism. What I mean by this is that we love to be on any kind of social band wagon as long as it is beneficial to us social for at least some time. The materialistic example of this would be fads. In elementary school it was Pokemon cards and yo yos. Junior high was Axe body spray. High school was Doc Martens and Vera Bradley. In college it has been neon colored anything and wolf t-shirts. While these things are cool we love to be a part of the fad but anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months down the line we realize that being a part of the fad is not gaining us any social success anymore and we drop the fad and later joke about how we naively took part in it in the first place.
I feel like this sort of mentality is not only seen in material fads but also in larger social settings like what causes we support. The most recent example being the surge of support for Haiti. Before I continue let me be clear that I am all for aiding these people who have been struck by devastation. What I am not for is helping people only when it is most convenient.
I noticed today that the number one song being purchased on iTunes is a song called Hallelujah by Justine Timberlake which is a part of a "Help for Haiti Now" album. Just weeks ago before the earthquake in Haiti the number one song was Tik Tok. Do you see how this is wrong on multiple levels? First, notice how two weeks ago Justin Timberlake (and I do like him) and the other artist on the album had no songs that even loosely referred to God or anything Godly. But all of the sudden when the market changed and people looked to God for answers musicians met the demand by flippantly recording Christian oriented songs. And the sad part about it all is that we fell for it and we fall victim to the same "caught up in the moment" spirituality. It can almost be sickening to see how we reduce Christian theology and God to just another fad. The last time we saw something similar to this was the tsunami that ravaged Indonesia and later Hurricane Katrina. We often jump on the most popular social justice band wagon around at the given time.
So how do I feel about the response to Haiti and are our fad like responses to tragedy that bad? First, I am glad that the body of Christ takes action so quickly to aid those in Haiti. My problem with it all though is that we only serve for how long it is convenient and cool. In a few weeks we will hear little to nothing about Haiti in the news, the number one song will be back to some bump and grind Kesha song and we will comfortably go back to our self centered daily lives with the feeling that we helped the world for a month by giving time and money. When in actuality our lives should be about changing the world. Showing Christ love is not a fad and if we make it that then it's not love at all. It's more like Christ's infatuation. On the positive side though, since America and other countries who pledge to aid disaster stricken countries are so wealthy even if we only care about helping the country for a month or two, we all give enough money that the people in the hurt countries do get to built new homes, businesses, and roads. So maybe it's not that bad after all.
I guess what my point is in the end is that we should make helping others our lifestyle not what's in style. There are still homeless people all over our country and around the world. People live in poverty and conditions like that of those after the earthquake everyday of their lives but we seldom hear those cries for help. So to wrap up, while the tragedy in Haiti is horrible, the people there are not the only ones suffering and the people there will be suffering for much longer than a month. So let's really be like Christ and not just get them back on their feet but get them walking again.
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