Do You Have H1N1?

The suffering in Haiti has taken on a new and tragic dimension with the earthquake today. The devastation may end the dream of an idyllic tourist spot for Americans.

A few years ago, tour guides were waiting with bony, undersized horses to carry investors to one of Haiti's most historic sites, the Citadel. They hoped that American money would recreate Haiti into the Caribbean's next vacation hotspot.

However, soaring food costs in April 2008 led to violent street protests that killed many and injured hundreds. U.S. State Department travel warnings grew more serious. Tourism in Haiti seems like an odd dream in a place where 1 child in 5 will die from hunger, disease and the effects of severe malnutrition.

Haiti wants the tourism success of their island neighbor, the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic shares the same rocky island in the Atlantic and they bring in more than $3.5 billion in revenues and millions of visitors to sprawling resorts and designer golf courses every year. Do these tourists know (or care) that countless children on this island must eat parasite laced mud cookies to stop the pain of hunger?

Thousands of American Christians go to the Dominican Republic and splurge on food, drink and jewelry for themselves while children starve all over the island. Help me understand how that is possible?

How can we justify that level of indifference, and perhaps even greed? How can we spend so lavishly on ourselves so close to extreme human suffering?

Perhaps the problem is that we have been infected by an increasingly more complex strain of the H1N1 virus. As a result, our ability to see the world as Christ sees the world has been impaired. It is a vision problem that also affects our head, our heart and our hands.

The virus affects our ability to discern truth from fiction . We do not consider ourselves wealthy or rich and therefore excuse ourselves from having any responsibility to help others. The truth is this: American Christians are rich beyond measure compared to the world. Filthy rich. All we have to do is stop and think about what we do have and not what we do not have.

H1N1 is serious (H1N1 stands for Here and Now for Number 1). Rather than wait for our eternal reward, we want it here and now. Rather than use our head, heart and hands to help those with far less, we justify (this is why the disease is so diabolical) spending more on ourselves. We are trading our future inheritance on trinkets and cheap souvenirs of the better life.

But you rich people are in for trouble. You have already had an easy life! (Luke 6:24)

H1N1 not only inhibits Christians from living like Christ but it spreads and hurts others. It hurts the poor as we pass them by. And it infects the world as they learn that Christians are really not much that different than they are. So why should they become like us?

I want to be clear on this. Christians should go to the Dominican Republic. They should go to Haiti. They should go to Africa. They should go throughout the world. They should spend money to help local mission groups. They should invest in micro business enterprises that help the poor get a leg up. They should buy merchandise from a single mother there who is learning to sew. And they should stoop down and feed a child from their abundance.

Taking a cruise to the Dominican Republic? Going to Bermuda? Cancun or anyplace else? Before you go, get inoculated against H1N1. How?

Read the Gospels. Then swallow what the Book says and let the Truth come out the pores of your skin.

Want to know if the inoculation worked? Here is a simple test. See if you can walk by the large screen flat panel TVs at Costco and not stop or twitch with rationalizing that purchase. How long is the key.