That's a lot to think about. I feel like many of the people who saw that movie must have had similar thoughts, but it seemed to have really affected you and hit a chord of concern for you on a lot of levels. I think it really shows your heart and it sounds like you really do have a good one that cares deeply about people, as well as your own personal role in the world. Now for my response. WARNING: These are not answers but opinions. Prepare yourself for the possibility of any or all of the following emotions: extreme disagreement, anger, frustration, nausea, apathy, boredom, disappointment, anger (yes maybe anger x2). embarrassment (for me), and a plethora of other unhealthy thoughts. When you say, "We are blessed, but with that blessing comes responsibility. To whom much is given, much is required," you are making an incredibly important statement that we in the United States do not hear enough of. We are the wealthiest nation on the earth and many people around the world are absolutely disgusted with our massive consumption, waste, and our perceived general disconcern for the rest of the world. Many of our fellow countrymen (Christians and non-Christians alike) actually make a conscious effort to avoid the problems of the world because they feel, for one reason or another, they cannot really change anything. I believe there are many factors involved in this type of mentality but the most dramatic of them being education. We all live in a country that rules by self-governance, which means that we need to believe that we can effect the world. The problem is that we, as Americans, are not encouraged to 1) be involved, 2) be educated about why people are starving, why people are killing each other, and what effect we have on the rest of the world, 3) be concerned about the way in which we live our lives, i.e. morally or ethically. The culture in America says "if no one is locking you behind bars then you must be doing ok." This post-modern world that is narcissistic in our relations and apathetic towards the political and cultural divides in this world is not something a responsible and truly caring person can ignore. Sorry for the pessimism here (I'm really an optimist. I promise), but I'm afraid that we are headed off the deep end here if we don't stop trying to spend every minute of every day either entertaining ourselves, entertaining others, or trying to make ourselves feel better about who we are. So you state, "what does the gospel say about this?” Well I say the gospel is the answer to ALL of this. The first thing that comes to mind is the word "agape." The word "love" is used throughout the New Testament but the Greek language has a variety of different words for what we use the word love for. The English language is extremely expansive and descriptive but it kind of let us down on this one. Agape means a selfless love and it is the word that is used more than any other for love in the New Testament. This is the most basic principle we can discern from the words of Christ to implement into our very short existence on this little planet. If one can love selflessly then just in that aspect that person begins to make the world in which he/she lives better. The world and the people in it begin to have more value and meaning; the people around you matter, not you; you don’t go to Africa to come back and feel good about yourself and to have stories to tell. You go to be a servant and a conduit for God, for the purpose of being what is good in the world. This is one aspect of the Truth that the Bible speaks of that was a major part of my submitting to/realizing/ accepting/loving God. This IS the light in the darkness. This is part of what it means to recognize that we are children of God. Love one another. So I think the goal is to be unconcerned, or at least less concerned for what we have, and I mean ALL kinds of material possessions (easily said from the mouth of a poor man), but more than that to see how, as one person, you might make the world a little better today and not live in the future or past but to be only concerned with the present and to live with no expectations of reward of any kind, only a joy and a knowledge that there are never any regrets in being good for this world. Marcus Aurelius wrote "Man has three relations: the one to the body which surrounds him; the second to the divine cause from which all things come to all; and the third to those who live with him." We would do well never to forget any of these three but we would do even better if we could put them in the proper order of importance. I don't know if any of that helped, or even made much sense for that matter, but in my opinion the specifics you mentioned only you can answer but I do think that there is something universal in all of us, and that's what really hits home on a good day for me and gives me encouragement. Besides, I tend to think God leads us to where we need to be in this lifetime. See I told you I was an optimist. Pax Vobiscum, Warren

Becca that is a great post. Thanks. We are isolated in America, our wealth supports this isolation & these movies crash & disturb that isolation with a very small dose of the reality that others are living in daily. The problem is that God will not allow us to remain in isolation. We are either going to move out in faith on our own into these dark places to bring the light or God is going to force us out by bringing it to our doorsteps. Kind of like what Chris was talking about on Sunday with the Hobbits. They were sitting pretty in their Hobbit holes while the darkness was creeping in on them. A very small group of them foresaw that if they continued to live in isolation they would not only be destroyed but they would miss their purposes and destinies in this life. I think that is a part of what motivated Tolkien's characters to put themselves in harms way. There was something greater drawing them in to it's purposes & they had to make a choice to be a part of that or not. I really think that is what God is doing in his church. He is wooing people into this adventure and it is crazy and dangerous & we look so small and insignificant up against the landscape of the the battle zone. These are just some very incomplete thoughts on the topic but thanks for jumpstarting my brain. I'll chew on this for a while.

hello all, becca, thanks for the post, i think that it reveals a lot of what we sweep under the rug. i think that our culture (specifically "young adults" but not limited to us) looks back throughout history and sees the different movements that sparked out of a dire need in america, and throughout the world, MLK, the hippy movement, and other social outcries that were reactions to injustice, but now we are so catered to in our culture, that we can still feel emotions about issues like conflict diamonds and world poverty, but like you said... we can escape those needs by simply turning off the television, or driving home, or whatever. for much of the world they can wrongly justify their absence in these issues but we are the church... the people of God... the ones who have received grace via the work of Christ on the cross to atone for each and every sin we've commited and will ever commit... we have a faithful God who will never leave us nor forsake us... we've got it made and are never to be mastered by our circumstances, because our master is God himself with all that said, we say "AMEN!" but our actions will probably say.. "yeah, so what?" another thing is that many of us are actually busy, working, going to school, family issues, all kinds of stuff, but helping the poor and loving the lost are much bigger priorities than our typical crap we have to wade through, but we are called to be faithful to God in all of these times, one form of legalism can be "if you aren't helping the poor all the time, then you probably dont know Jesus", as in the gospel becomes Jesus+helping the poor= salvation, by the grace of God, that isn't the case the love of Jesus, and Him making known to us how much love He has for us should pour into our hearts, and the overflow of that should be a willingness to dive into the mess of the world and help so.. responsibility... i dont know but i do know that as long as we are trusting in what Christ has done for us on the cross, that will compel us to do as we are called, whether we are called to be a banker, or a martyr another thought that comes up is all of the broken and hurting people that we are around every day that aren't being served, sometimes i think that their souls are farther away from the gospel than the child soldier in africa, but i could definately be wrong, the Bible teaches that we are to do good unto ALL people (Galatians 6:10), so we are to serve the rich and the poor, but we are to serve the rich with abundant love and truth, and the poor with abundant love, truth and provision for their needs so as far as "what do we do now?" i dont know, but God is faithful, and He will call anyone, you or me to do His work the primary factor is the Gospel, helping the poor won't save us, neglecting the poor won't save us, saving all of the child soldiers won't save us, only Christ can save us, once the recognition of Christ's work is flourishing in our hearts, the servanthood will naturally show fruit this also reminded me of a thought-provoking video, it's only about 1 minute and 30 seconds in the video is a man named Jerry Bridges The Middle Class Threatens Faithfulness - Jerry Bridges http://www.desiringgod.org/Events/NationalConferences/Archives/2007/Podcast/40/ for tons more amazing videos along the same lines, check out "previous episodes" http://www.desiringgod.org/Events/NationalConferences/Archives/2007/Podcast/ and if you click on "view all" in the right column, you will see titles for more intense videos http://www.dontwasteyourlife.com/Podcast/ all of these videos are produced by desiringGod.com , john piper's ministry many of these short videos really helped my faith in Christ, Devin