He is Selling Pens, and We are...

I know you saw it: nearly everyone did. It didn't matter if you lived in Turkey, Iceland, or Canada. The lifeless body of one far too young to experience such brutality, such a harsh death. The drowned form of 3-year-old Aylan. The near-age of my youngest. Every mother crumpled at the sight.



Sadly, many gazed at the screen, rolled through the pictures and dismissed the ideas with a "so tragic," and then they clicked on their BBC program. In a world where a man sells pens to keep his daughter and son alive, how do we proceed with our manicures, $12 movies, and shopping sprees? In a society that says it's okay to sit and drink $4 coffee and $15 sandwiches and ignore the plight of those living in tents how do we proceed? This heart-wrenching, train-wreck of lives in Syria impacts us. It really does? Why, you ask? They are halfway across the globe and their world isn't ours.  



But it is.

Because how we respond to the fate of a fellow human being in persecution says something about our own humanity. And I'm not talking about social "persecution" over whether you get your own bathroom or the privilege of sharing one with girls. I'm not referring to whether on not you get your phone updated, or a car at 16, or your parents buy you the name-brand accessories. I'm talking about children with slit throats, and children living in abandoned chicken coops, and children dying of diseases easily prevented. I'm talking about millions running for their lives.



In our over-privileged, bloated lives, we just have no idea what that would be like.



What can I do? Money is tight as it is?

Can you spare your entertainment for one month...two? Can you give up your eating out, your movies, your new shoes for the rest of the year? Could you give that much? Sadly, many--myself included--aren't even willing to inconvenience ourselves that much. People are suffering, dying, and losing their homes, but we don't want the discomfort of cutting back in one unessential way.



Want to know more about the crisis in Syria? Go here. 

Want to help? You can go to World Vision.org/syria and donate directly to the cause to provide shelter, food, medical supplies and protection to these displaced brothers and sisters.