Pastor’s Blog II

Eventually a number will be produced. Maybe today or tomorrow or next week but the world will receive a number. The number I am referring to of course is the number of dead in Haiti after the January 12th earthquake that has devastated that poor country. The number is the problem.

On the one hand it will be so difficult to get an exact number because of the nature of Haiti itself. The accuracy of government records is suspect. Currently there is no government agency capable of overseeing or taking charge. It will be a number that will have no sense of certainty affliated with it. On the other hand the problem is the number itself. Most of the world will gasp at the staggering nature of the number. Maybe it will be 100,000 or 500,000 or worse and we will talk about how awful it is that another natural disaster has struck our world. It’s not a number to God. It is people, precious people created in His image by a creator who loves them in ways that we cannot fully grasp.

For our small team that was there so recently it is not a number. We have looked into the faces of the people of Haiti and it has changed us. Yes it is a country wracked with poverty. Yes it is a country that has a multitude of problems. Yes the governments of the past have been self-serving and often useless in relation to caring for their own but these people are not numbers. They are people with names and families and dreams and hurts. They are people learning and growing and for many of them they are just hearing the good news of Jesus Christ a Saviour who loves them.

Please don’t allow the news to tell you a number and for you to walk away thinking that was awful. The number will be awful but it is not a number. It is precious people each of whom God loves passionately and we are called to love them as well.  Scripture reminds us often that God loves the widows and the orphans.  There will be an abundance of new widows and orphans to be loved in Haiti.  We will be a people who do that work on God’s behalf.

There are two words I have shared with our staff when it comes to this year 2010. The least and the worst. I said I want us to be a church concerned about the least and the worst. Today Haiti screams at us “we are the least and the worst.”

Make no mistake, this week Haiti is in the world media’s spotlight but that will fade. Another story will push Haiti off the stage and much of the world will forget the devastation that has occurred. Cornerstone will not be included in that picture. Let us commit now to doing whatever we can for as long as we can to make as big a difference as we can because they are not numbers. They are people and if God loves them so will we love them.

A door of opportuntiy has opened. Let us boldly walk through the door by the grace of God offering the truth and help of God to a people who are open to discovering a God who longs for relationship with them. This is our chance to really make a difference in our world.

Today allow God to break your heart with the need of people not the size of a number. Look into their faces when you see them on the news. Put yourself in their situation. Who are you looking for? What do you need? What is it you want? As you answer those questions maybe you will discover that you can be the answer to some of those questions for someone in Haiti. For a person…not a number.