Misplaced Concern

I grew up in a very small town. It was a summer resort town. The “resort part” was limited to a lake that you could waterski on. The population of the town in the summer would swell to 2,500 people and pets.

For a brief period of time there was a movie theater that would show one movie a month, that had typically already been in theaters for well over a year. The first movie I saw there was Disney’s, The Jungle Book. The film was released in 1967, but I saw it in the theater in 1977 (It was a very small town).

Looking back on the films of my childhood I remember being impacted that both Bambi’s mom and the fox’s mom from The Fox and the Hound were killed. Don’t get me started on Where the Red Fern Grows…

On a recent trip to Rwanda, one of the leaders of Africa New Life Ministries was describing the difficulty Americans have in seeing poverty. He described it this way, “Westerners are broken on the mission field of Africa not because children are going to hell, but because children are going hungry. Hunger is temporary, hell is forever.”

Initially I was frustrated by this comment, not wanting to fall into that stereotype. But then I am the same guy that watched the Passion of the Christ and Old Yeller once and have no desire to see them a second time.

The prophet Ezekiel was told by God to “groan with bitter grief” before the people of Israel. When asked why he was groaning, he was to tell the people of the terrible news that was coming. It was news that going to make hearts melt, hands lose their strength, knees become as weak as water, and cause their spirit to faint. What was the terrible news that was coming? Old Yeller had rabies? Not exactly.

Lord, break my heart for what breaks your’s.