Everyone in my life has been sick for the last 2-3 weeks. They say on TV, it is one of the worst cold and flu seasons in history. Being a full-time student, I have been fighting it with all my might - running unabashedly in the opposite direction of my classmates who cough and sniffle their way through classes. But last week, it finally caught up with me.
I traveled to Egypt to talk about Jesus at a school there, and by Thursday, I was unable to sleep through the night because of an inability to breathe and an incessant need to blow my nose. But something else was happening to me there that was so much more important that I pushed through and tried really hard to experience as much of it as possible in spite of the scratch in my throat.
I saw God working in the lives of the teenagers I was there to talk to. I was drawn into the reality of their lives. I listened to them sing, talk about their fears and teach me their jokes. I was moved to do all I could to help them. I was changed by their lives in a way that I didn’t expect. I started to feel empathy for them - I allowed myself to be moved by their lives to the depth of my life in a way that compelled me to action.
It seemed like the haze of an infection suddenly started to dissipate. I started to understand the value of the things I take for granted (the ability to attend school if I choose, the means to travel freely, even the air that I breathe). It seems to me that the worst state that we get ourselves into in mid-America is apathy and full-on lack of vision about what is really going on in the world. It is like our hearts are stuffy. We can’t hear, because our ears are popping...with whatever noise we can possibly create. We can’t see because our eyes are puffy and red...with the tears of self-pity and overblown fear. We can’t breathe because our lungs are full...of the hot, infected air of opinion without experience and insight.
I just want to say, anybody who’s feeling the virus...who has a nagging feeling that their American cultural blindspot may be bigger than they hope...I have found the cure. Get outta Dodge, or at least Dodge country. Go to another place on this earth and allow your life to be in contact with other lives in service. Get out of your plastic bubble and take in the deep breath. The cure for the common cold heart is to meet and serve somebody who really needs it. Africa, South America, India, Romania and many other places around this globe are desperate for what you have to give - time and love, a healthy body that is willing to be present with them no matter what the situation they are in.
We’re all longing for the cure for the common cold...do we even know that we need healing for our cold hearts?
