This isn’t about guilt; it’s about action. This isn’t about blame; it’s about responsibility. This isn’t about some faceless, fragmented mass of humanity; it’s about your brother, your sister, your Savior. You do know this is about Jesus, don’t you?
I’m not sure how many of you know about the situation in Northern Uganda. But it is dire. For 18 years a war has waged on, a genocide continues and child-abductions steadily increase.
And after 18 years, most of the non-Saharan world remains largely unaware, largely uninformed and largely unmoved by what Colin Powell has called “the greatest tragedy on earth today.”
The facts of the case are simple enough: two million people forced from their homes, 30,000 children abducted and forced to fight as soldiers, more than 40,000 children commuting nightly, a weekly death rate three times higher than that of Darfur.
I’m writing on behalf of the Invisible Children Advisory Board. Fancy name, I know. In truth, we’re just a ragamuffin bunch of Jesus-lovers who have a heart for justice, a heart for children, a heart for activism and a heart for a Biblically-inspired altruism that compels more than love made manifest through words or tongue, but through actions and in truth [1 John 3:18].
I’m writing because if we don’t do something, Jesus is going to die in Northern Uganda. If we don’t do something, Jesus is going to get raped in the bush tonight. If we don’t do something, Jesus will continue to be relegated to a life of cowering in a corner on the other side of the world while the American church that bears His name allows him to starve to death. You do know this is about Jesus, don’t you?
When you are standing before the judgment seat of Christ, how will you justify your inaction? If Matthew 25 has anything to teach us, it is that our actions now have eternal consequences. So does our lack of action.
When people hear about the Invisible Children, they usually ask “Why?” False pretenses and good intentions aside, the answer is because of people like me, and people like you-people who see films such as Invisible Children and read newspaper articles like this, feel convicted, but then somehow go on living their lives as if Jesus didn’t really mean it when he said the way for us to show our love for him was to care for his flock.
We can’t be obedient to Christ and we can’t love Christ if we’re allowing Christ to die in Northern Uganda.
The time has come to act. Become the story by joining the movement that has already begun. Go to www.invisiblechildren.com. Don’t put this newspaper down and do nothing. If you don’t do something, you’ll allow another child to die. Literally.
We’re starting to change the world. But we need your help. If you don’t do something, you’ll allow Jesus to die.
After all, you do know this is about Jesus, don’t you?
–Josh Meyer is a junior majoring in Communication Studies