Spotlight on Darfur 2 is up! Eddie from Live from the FDNF is the host. He's done a great job bringing together a wide variety of posts and he even accepted my small entry after the entry deadline was past. With so many blogs competing for your attention, this carnival is worth visiting. Come on! Quit reading what I have to say and go over there. It is a small but powerful way to help raise awareness of the situation in Darfur.
I am convinced that these carnivals (it's not exactly a carnival but for lack of a better word. . .) do make a difference. I personally know of one blogger who is prone to forget to pray and is easily distracted by less important issues--like how many unique visiters her blog received today. This blogger tells me that although she cares about those who suffer, she needs regular reminders of what she can do to help.
And if you fear to take the big "click" and read about Darfur because you don't want to feel guily, you're not alone. But consider this. Even if you were a janjaweed and personally responsible for the death and destruction in Darfur, God's grace would be wide enough to cover your sin. But you're probably not a janjaweed. You're probably a pretty comfortable middle-class person like myself whose worst sin is apathy. But God's grace is still wide enough to cover your sin and mine. Even the sins of apathy, sloth, and greed.
The point of raising awareness for Darfur is not to make us feel guilty because we didn't send all our extra money to Sudan or because we didn't pray for more than five minutes today (or this week). The point is not to make us feel bad because we're safe, warm, and well-fed. If anything, we should be humbly grateful, not wallowing in guilty. The point is to give us an oportunity to express our thankfulness to God by helping those who are in need of our assistence.
Reading about the suffering in Darfur is hard, yes. It is painful. But in the end, we shouldn't fear being made to feel guilty or frightened that we may end up depressed by the horror in this world. God is more than able to bring good out of evil, even out of genocide, rape, and starvation. In the end, we know that good will triumph over evil. God is not impotent or slow to act. God will hear and answer our prayers for the people of Darfur and for our own hard hearts. So don't avoid thinking about Darfur. Rest in the power and goodness of God.
All right, I'll get off my soapbox now.
