Suffering

Yesterday I decided I wanted to watch a movie. So during 'nap' time I sat down and found something on Showtime. We don't usually have Showtime but because we've been 'loyal' customers of Direct TV for 3 years we got a 3 months trial. It was nice to have a commercial free movie on but at the same time the content could not have been shown on commercial television. Why? It was very violent and graphic, however it is a true story from our modern times.

Do you remember where you were in early 1994? I was finishing up my Junior year of high school in a small southern town. A rough year in my mind as several high school friends past away in car accidents that year, my favorite aunt died, my mom's best friend was diagnosed with cancer, my grandmother died and my dad had back surgery.

However crazy my 1994 was it was nothing compared to someone in Rwanda during that time. So my nice Saturday afternoon movie was about the genocide in Rwanda. Why did I watch that? I knew what it would be like. Like my dad said about the movie Titanic - "Sure it's a good movie if you like seeing 2000 people die".

Do you know much about the genocide in Rwanda? I didn't until I started visiting Africa in 2003. Here's a quick timeline from the BBC if you want to check it out. The short of it is one tribe (Hutu) wanted to wipe out another tribe (Tutsi). In 1994 the Hutu killed about 800,000 people in 100 days! Can you imagine? This was not even done with machine guns for the most part or even bombs. No it was done with what they use to cut the grass in Africa - machetes.

Now I'm not trying to depress you over events that happened half my life ago (16 years) but I wanted to point out somethings I though about during the movie.

In my current Bible study about Jesus some of these things have come up in discussion. As a man Jesus was here on this corrupt Earth with the full ability to clean things up. However God had a plan that had to be done accordingly. How hard must it have been for him to not just take it all back from the "king of the air" Satan (Ephesians 2:2)? I wonder how hard it must have been for him to hold back in 1994? or 1944 when Jews were dying? or any other year that held horrible atrocities towards His people?

In the movie it was asked where was God? The movie answered with "He was there among the suffering." I do believe He was. He was there among the suffering 2000 years ago as it was stated in Matthew 9:36 "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

I say all this to point out that even when we feel helpless Jesus is still there. He is with the suffering. Our friend whose father is kidnapped in Africa is still waiting for his release. Jesus has been there with them and their father the whole time. No matter what happens on this Earth His name will be glorified.