Last night I had an awful dream that really shook me up. In my dream I was walking towards my wife's VW Beetle. For some reason I had a deep fear that my 12 year old son was dead. I looked into the windows of the car and his twisted body was lying across the front seat -- looking like he had died very suddenly. Somehow I found comfort by thinking that whatever had happened, had been fast. Opening the door, he began to move and I realized he was alive. My wife was there with him. "Levi, are you OK?" -- He looked towards me with blind eyes, responding to the sound of my voice -- my wife said his sight had recently gone. Then he spoke to me with tender honesty regarding the inevitable death that was coming, "I'm starting to get nervous." His condition was terrible -- his gums were raw, and diseased. Teeth were missing. His sight gone. His body emaciated. I reached out and held him and he kissed me. My heart was broken -- it was unimaginable. I told him that I thought it would be over during the next 24 hours.
When I woke up, I was shaken and upset. I laid there and prayed for my children. I wondered what this dream might be about.
Two hours later I found myself sitting at a breakfast put on by World Vision for World AIDS Day. There I heard Rich Stearns, President of World Vision recite some of the statistics: 8,000 die each day. 14,000 infected every day. 8 million people every year receive a death sentence. Children are infected at birth or through their mother's milk. Women are infected by husbands. 39% of all adults in Botswana are infected. There is no cure...Then I walked through a maze of a exhibits called "The AIDS Experience", hearing the story of a boy named Timothy-- from Malawi. As I walked through the exhibit the MP3 player told his story from one of hope and childhood innocence, to one of tremendous loss culminating with his own death.
Behind every number is a tragic story. The story of the loss of a son, a daughter, a parent, a friend.
This crisis has been called the greatest crisis of our generation. History is being made. When will the church lead the way with care and compassion, rather than judgment or indifference?
Midway through the breakfast my dream made sense.
I had been given the unique chance to feel that awful sadness that millions are feeling today because of AIDS. Only for me it was just a dream and only for a moment. For others, it is a reality and it lasts a lifetime.
James 2:14-17 "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
My challenge to you: Do something about it! Let's not ignore this problem. If we ignore it, I believe we're making a huge mistake. If you get a chance to visit the exhibit in Seattle, please do so.
The experience also gave me a greater understanding of how great God's love is. It's one thing for Jesus to die for us. But I think it may have been even a greater thing for the Father to send His Son to die for us. This sounds simple, but the feeling I had in the dream made this reality profound like never before.
Please comment or pass along to someone that needs to hear this.
2 comments:
Matt,
Thank-you for that very challenging picture. Thank-you for your sensitivity and care for those who suffer with this dreaded disease.
For me, the face of the HIV-AIDS crisis is a bit different. It is the face of a dear KFC church member twisted in pain, racked with fear, and gasping the last few breaths as I struggle to pray over her for the last time in a language not my own. It is a man lying in bed weakened with the disease that I discover accidentally while knocking on doors in a jammed slum--and spend some few momement with explaining God's plan of salvation and praying with him..only to find him dead two days later when I come for follow-up. It is me sitting at the clinic waiting my turn for my own HIV test..as a demonstration to the young men in my church the absolute importance of knowing for sure your HIV status. It is seeing a baby--the child of Muslim parents--healed of the virus and restored to health. It is a sister going down in the waters of baptism and coming up transformed in body and spirit...with HIV in apparent remission.
As gripping as my pictures of the HIV crisis are...there is a disease in Africa which kills more people than HIV, Malaria, and Tuberculosis combined. It is called: Corruption in government and business life.
Corruption is a moral problem. The Gospel message preached fearlessly in the face of overwhelming opposition, oppression, and threats will save more lives than almost anything else we can do in Africa.
GREG
Matt,
What a powerful dream! Since HIV/Aids is killing more adults than children, can you imagine being a child watching a parent suffer through the affects of HIV/Aids until death and then being left to live with anyone that will take you in or being left to fend for yourself and for your siblings? This is an area that the greater Church cannot ignore if we say we are part of the body.
Teresa
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