The Kenya Attack

One thing you need to know about my husband is that he lives off of the news… at any given time he likes to have the news on the TV and also on the radio so he can stay up to date on what is happening in Uganda and around the world. I had never paid much about the news until I got married… now I won’t lie I definitely appreciate being more aware of all that is happening. Of course, sometimes “ignorance is bliss” and you would almost rather not know all the craziness that is happening. It seems like on a daily basis you hear about Egypt, Syria, and other countries around the world where countless people are dying because of weather or war. You hear about it, but then sometimes it strikes close to home and it hits you harder than usual. That is what happened three days ago when I got home to hear the news “Kenya has been attacked”.

It’s terrible enough that 10-15 heavily armed and prepared gunmen rushed into a huge beautiful shopping mall in Nairobi right at lunch time on a Saturday afternoon. It’s terrible enough that they shot security guards point blank, that they asked all the Muslims to leave, and then started asking the hostages questions and if they failed to answer them to their standards they killed them as well as killing some just because their cell phones went off. But now… three days later, imagine what it would be like seeing people continuing to be killed before your eyes, still not being able to leave, and who knows if they can get food or water and having no idea if they will ever see their loved ones again. Thinking about what the hostages who have been used as human shields at times continue to go through kept me awake last night.

This is terrible… but this is the state of our world. This is the state of a world that has forgotten their God. This is the state of a world that has rejected a God of love, holiness, and grace and has gone after religion of self. The first reaction the world and sadly to say, many Christians, would be to attack Muslims (Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility). I’ll be honest, I was sickened that when on September 11th people were saying how they’re going to celebrate by eating pork basically to spit in the face of Muslims. How does that show love? How does that attitude glorify God?

Last night I was nearly in tears thinking of this situation, and this morning the tears are in my eyes not because of horrific nature of this attack but because of how Kenyans are responding. They are not reacting in hate but instead in love for one another. They are donating blood, sending help to the Red Cross, and the thing that got me the most was one guy who just decided to bring a gas cylinder and a stove to make morning tea for the police officers who are on duty there. Nairobi is fairly developed according to African standards but they’re still Africa… but they were able to be put away their tribal and political differences to rally alongside one another in this time.

Instead of “reacting” in anger, may this event trigger in us two things 1) Realize you NEVER know when life will change. Make sure those in your life know you love them and don’t live life with regrets thinking “one day I’ll make it right”. And 2) If you are a believer in Christ, we should be motivated to share His love more and more in this crazy world because we have hope… hope that one day we will experience eternity without tears, suffering or pain.