Blood Diamonds

Glenn Johnson and I went and saw Blood Diamond tonight and its a worthy flick. The issues are heavy, the situation is grotesque, but its all humanity as it can be. I couldn't even begin to sort out the truths from the fiction, that mostly is not the point. Its a story of horrors on earth, atrocities of humankind. This story will not be a remedy for cynicism in this world, it will leave you with disdain for the potential of evil within each one of us.

It leaves me with these thoughts:

1) I am a world citizen. Its not about God Bless America. My God created humanity, not just my 200 year old land/nation that we stole from another people. If there is a part of humanity that suffers, we all suffer. Our world is not whole, that's not somebody else's problem, its mine. The issues of a broken humanity ought to be personal to me.

2) I am a consumer. I have the ability and the means to acquire stuff. Do I think about the ramnifications of my purchases? Do my eyes see past the sale price to the story behind the product? I'm not worried about purchasing diamonds, I've only done that once in my life and thank God my wife has very simple taste. In actuality, I only bought the gold for that diamond because the gem was actually my grandmothers. I shop at Walmart and Target and I'm deeply aware of the fact that those prices are passed onto me because China is not free. The trade deficit between China and the U.S. because of our consumer appetites will be a contributing factor to the demise of our econmoy throughout my lifetime. So what kind of choices will my kids make? the same ones I model for them now . . .

3) We are not free. We watch war-torn nations like Sierre Lionne, Rowanda, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo etc. and we pity them because they are not free and safe like us. But are we really free? Our wars are not from without, they are from within. Our souls are not free or we wouldn't have greed. The growing reality is that America wreaks with addictions, we have a culture full of idol worship. We think we choose but the idols are choosing us. We have given ourselves to whatever pleases us without care for the state of our soul. Our slavery is yet within and it keeps us in the same torment we have always known. We hunger for things that are dead and have forgotten what life tastes like.

4) I am not free. What I accuse everybody else of, lives in me. this reality ought to keep me up tonight.

5) I pray the fullness of Kingodm Come is closer now than ever. I long for the final resurrection and a new creation. My heart groans for this tonight.

peace,