I John 3:16-18, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

I woke up with the flu this morning. It seems my attempts at healthy and whole eating have momentarily failed me. My friend ran to the grocery store before 10:00 AM to get me juice and graham crackers (sometimes you just have a hankering for one thing and one thing only). “Are you sure you don’t mean saltines?” she replied. Hmmm… “Nope, graham crackers it shall be.”

We are so dialed in here in America. A slight fever and I’ve got 40,000 choices of drinks, snacks, restaurants, soups… all the while, thousands of God’s creation have died or are dying in the rubble, and I truly have no idea what to do with this knowledge. I can make no reconciliation here, simply I can cling to this passage in I John that doesn’t explain, it only tells: this is what love is that we lay our lives down for our brothers and sisters. That we give out of our immense options and poverty to those who are in desperate need.

• worldvision.org
• samaritan’s purse
• compassion international