Responding to our World

I was still on a bus to Amsterdam when Efi leaned over to tell Renata and I that there had been terrorist attacks in Paris. I don’t really know anyone in Paris; I have no friends or family there, unlike the many people I know in Strasbourg. In fact, two of my host siblings consider the capital, Paris, their home since they work and live there. I’ve been there a few times now (that’s crazy) but most of my family and friends know that I live about a 3-hour train ride from the city. Nonetheless, the events were truly shocking and upsetting. The amount of texts, check-ins, and facebook messages I received was overwhelming and it was amazing to see the concern and love people have for me. However, it reminded me of how absolutely devastating this event was.

After Efi had me call my mom to tell her I was absolutely fine, Renata and I fell into a discussion about terrorism, injustice, capitalism… some pretty deep stuff. Because it’s easier to talk about heavy topics such as the one’s mentioned, rather than feeling heart-broken over the fact that so many innocent people were just killed by extremists responding to their conditions with violence and hate. And when Facebook messages surfaced telling me to pray for Paris or news about other attacks that happened across the world, it seemed like everything was falling apart. I feel selfish even considering this blog to be about me right now, but it’s a fact of life that these events affect all of us, even those who are halfway around the world, or a 3 hours travel from it.

So, how do I respond to events like these? To the fact that a girl in your class lost a friend to the tragedy, or to the fact that my host mom had to frantically call two of her children to make sure they were okay? How do I laugh and be happy after people were ruthlessly killed or those some people aren’t granted media access to their immense tragedy because the media outlets are racially and culturally biased? How do you respond when you can’t do… anything?

I read an article that suggested a pretty solid answer: solidarity. But how? “Let your heart break… but not stay that way.” Grieving for people you don’t know isn’t selfish or overly emotional, it is human and compassionate. Pray for Paris and Beirut and Japan and the world. But God can only do some much, short of overstepping our free will if we don’t act on our compassion: “Christ has no hands but yours, not feet but yours” (Teresa of Avila). So what now?

Pray. Be informed. A professor once told me that there are two stages to changing the world, the struggle for knowledge and the struggle for action (paraphrasing Hobgood). It is okay that we’re only in the first stage. Learn, share, teach, and understand. Knowledge really is power.

This event also made me really think of a question that I can’t get out of my head and can’t answer. How do I live my life to matter? How do I make a difference in this world where so much violence and hate is so prevalent? Where, even when I speak up, the world’s darkness and criticism overshadow me?

LOVE and PEACE,

Jessica

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2015 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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