Worlds apart- the difference and the shock

WORLDS APART

I am sitting in the centrally air-conditioned computer lab of the Dodd library in CMC Vellore. I type these lines on an Intel Atom processor connected through a high speed Wi-Fi. This block is situated is a ten storied building connected through elevators and pneumatic chute systems. I start the day with a good morning SMS and a refreshing shower thanks to the 24 hours water supply and uninterrupted power that illuminates the long corridors of the place we live. Then I enter the mess for breakfast that serves extensive menus all three times and indulge in some gastronomic delights. I approach the library and drown myself in the ocean of books to face the PG entrance taking breaks with hot Chocolates served by automated machines and surfing mobile internet.  A life marked with hi-tech gadgets, unbroken comforts that can pamper you in a second and spoil you in the next.

Two months ago I was in a totally different world, may be like a H.G.Wells who travelled back on his time machine a hundred years. But the confusion still lingers on which of the two worlds I have seen, is the real one. I worked in a place called Lamtaput for a couple of years. It is 30 kms away from the nearest railway station, 40 kms form the nearest bus station and has insolent roads that were bothered by only three buses that traverse those paths daily. Power was almost non-existent there. And the hospital I worked in functioned in eternal darkness. I used to get up early with the crowing of the roost in the adjacent farm and used to take prayer walks with the avalanche of avian friends who greeted the dawn of the new day. It would be followed by a devotion that was practiced with unwavering zeal. The patients would slowly trickle in with their own mind-sets and ideologies expecting some respite to their pathetic state.

In that world of Lamtaput, pain is a daily companion. People have learned to live with it. Poverty is another daily chum with which the cart of life is pulled. Death and disease are a part of their lives. They do not murmur, they do not grumble. It is as if they have cajoled their world into a persistent dystopia that they are fine with their state and nothing better is in store. In other words hope is a lost word in their lexicon. A 16 year old unwed girl becomes pregnant and the next day they take her to forest and abort her with native medicines and bring her to the hospital in haemorrhagic shock. A 70 year old comes with a chronic wound for four years with repulsive odour and maggots all over does not bother him much. A 5 year old boy with a blood level of 3 does not bring any sense of urgency in the mother who thinks of going home for her festival. And there is a word that you hear day in and day out-‘No money’. Feed your child well her blood is low- no money! Admit the child in the hospital to get treated for cerebral malaria in ARDS- no money! Why is your daughter not going to school- no money! You are a diabetic, hypertensive and sickle cell disease, off medicines for 6 months- no money! Sometimes this phrase annoys you and some other times it pushes you into a spiral of depression as to why there is so much of poverty in this place? Can I do anything about it? Can we, as believers in a God who asked us to give off a cloak to the naked if you have two, do something?

If there was anything that Christ brought to this earth, it was hope. The hope is that  through His grace and sacrifice on the cross, we will be with Him in eternity. We are no more in condemnation. We know our God. He is at peace with us. He has given us authority over the earth to redeem it from the evil one. He has asked us to go and share the good news and free the captives from poverty, disease, superstition, ignorance and sin. Like Lamtaput there are many places in our country where there may be a need for His touch. It may be the next house you live or the next street you walk along. So how shall we carry this message of Hope? Are we serious about His mandate for us that demands us to go the extra mile? If there are any segment of people on this earth that would want to travel to the other world- from the cosy, posh luxurious world to the dirty, poor and diseased one- it would be us. Do not expect unbelievers to do it. And if we are not willing to do it, may be the work for some time may remain undone.

I write this with a heavy heart, brethren! After all the teaching we have received in our college fellowships about God, His love and the testimonies we ourselves share on how much God did for us in our lives, we are afraid to take a step of faith for Him when the decisive times approach. And we suddenly realise that all our health system is becoming so corporate and anti-poor and wonder why so many mission hospitals in our country are closing down. We also pray sincerely asking God to revive them. Sometimes we are the answer to our prayers and the need itself is the call. Shall we not prayerfully consider if God is asking some of us to go to places like Lamtaput and other places of extreme genuine need? The world we live in is already broken on the lines of haves and the have nots. Their worlds are different and the distance between them is growing every day until someone among us is willing to respond like one man who  said, “ LORD, SEND ME!”.