Driving home and listening to ‘Fix You’ it hit me. There are no dead bodies on the side of the road. Buildings are standing. My mother will be on the other end of the phone line if I need her. Children aren’t wandering the street aimless and orphaned. Food and water is available… For the people of Haiti, all this is reality. It’s today - it’s now. For a country that suffers so much on a daily basis this is unthinkable. They have no resources; their government is so unorganized they had no idea where to send the overwhelming amount of troops and aid they were first receiving. Haitians living in hell had no idea the world was literally waiting in line to help them.
Times like this truly make me question God.
Then I see it. Churches coming together, bringing everything they have to the table. Churches sacrificing their lives, landing in hell trying to help clean up the mess. Why Haiti? I have no idea. Why not Montreal, Colorado Springs or Winnipeg? I think that realistically, if a quake hit Sudbury, Ontario this huge mobilization would not happen. Churches would not come together like this. The world would not rally behind humanitarian organizations to bring relief. George Laraque would not be doing World Vision commercials on Virgin Radio.
Maybe it’s to get our attention – maybe it’s to wake us up. Are you listening?
Camera bag slumped over one shoulder, laptop wire over the other- although it may be trailing me on the ground. Do I dare turn around? My slick-bottom European shoes prove to be a threat on ice… do I risk my laptop and my camera? Nahhh. It’ll dry. The winter is slightly depressing this year. A serious lack in the snow department has deceived me into thinking it’s almost March. Imagine my disappointment when I see January on top of the calendar page. I love winter. I like sledding and scarves (two obvious must-haves)… but I like winter. This, this slush, 0 degree weather is not winter. The fact that I can still see small shrubs attests to that. That’s it. I’m running away to Central America. For real, I am! In just over 2 weeks I’ll be landing in sunny Costa Rica and then busing it to Panama City. I’m so excited! Fresh pineapple! Sun! Fresh pineapple! Friends! It’s a rough itinerary, I know.
I passed under the sign no one driving wants to read: Highway 13 North (the one I wanted to go on): Accident. All lanes closed. Really? So I sat there with everyone else waiting to go home and I turned off the "Top 96 songs of 2009" - I had enough of lady Gaga anyways - and sat there thinking and praying.
Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me." I'll admit: it's a pretty egotistical statement. But never, not once, did I stop to think why Jesus said that. Why would He, Jesus 'meek and mild', sweet baby Jesus, say something so controversial? I realized a long time ago that Jesus was a revolutionary - he went against the grain. I think He wanted to prove a point. In talking to my friend Liz over the past few days, she showed me something that never clicked before: Jesus said that because He's the only one that came to get us. Allah never came. Buddha never came. No one else never came down to earth to put themselves in form of man to sympathize with our weaknesses, as the Bible says. Jesus in the book of John says "I came down from heaven" - He came down, and that made Him the Way, the Truth and the Life. The only way to get to the Father is through Him, because He's the one that created us and loved us enough to come down and 'get us' to bring us to the Father. I think this week I realized why I love true Christianity - it's not a game to win points, claw out the opponents and burn candles to hopefully, maybe get ourselves to heaven. It's not a competition to see who can honor God the most. I love it because it's for me - the imperfect sinner who loves God and has a small fear of fire (so candles and I aren't always friends).
It's a simple faith, when it's all said and done. There are no promises in the Bible that say everything will be ponies and rainbows, but I know that He came down for me and that He will be with me.
Happy New Year! Feliz año! I traveled up to beautiful Quebec City to celebrate the new year with one of my best friends. Although the actual celebrating was pretty chillaxed, I had a super time in the old city taking close to a 1000 pictures with my wonderfully new camera! I posted some of my favorite pictures below. Hope you had a fantastic evening with family, friends and other people!
The Parliment building.The St-Louis gate. Quebec city remains the only walled city in North America. There are two main entrances and now they opened up the lower part as well.I also stopped by and said hi to Marie-Hélène, and to defrost my face.. I was pretty frozen in this picture- it hurt to smile.Every year they build a skating rink in Place d'Youville.. It's gorgeous at night!
Le Château Frontenac, built as a hotel on top of the old fortress that used to protect "New France" from the imminent attack of the British. I love the contrast of the red roof!A pretty sweet slide over-looking the Fleuve St-LaurentLe Petit Champlain below where the fortress was and the Fleuve St-Laurent
