an assortment of gathered thoughts...

A professor from the public health department came to speak to us at SCM on the 12th. We were talking about George Monbiot's article in the Guardian about Avatar as a metaphor for the 'American Holocaust'. We talked about what it meant to exploit, what it meant to build on the burning ashes of a civilisation we have destroyed. We talked about a new way of thinking, a new way of acting, a new way of being - connected, sustainable, interdependent.

He brought the session to a close by reminding us that as Christians we must remain faithful. We must faithfully carry out that portion of the task appointed to us, and we can do no more, no less than that.

I went to bed thinking about persistence, steadfastness, faithfulness. I have fought the good fight, I have run the race to the end. I have kept the faith.

I woke up to the news about Haiti, and the blogosphere was alive with those who wanted to go - just to go, to be there, to do something. Anything. That natural instinct - to reach out our arms to the hurting and pull them to us. To touch, to hold, to comfort. To sit shiva, to weep with the mourning and to question the motives of an omnipotent God who leaves children to fade away under the wreckage of buildings.

Some are called to go - they have the time, the skills, the opportunity - to go and be the ambassadors for a world united once again in shock and sorrow.

As for the rest of us, ours is to keep praying, keep giving and keep asking questions about the poverty that has made a bad situation far, far worse. To persist, faithfully, with what is ours to do.