Sunday, August 22, 2010

Shall We Hate the Taliban with a Deeper, More Perfect Hate?

An elderly man in Kabul with 8 children, all are at school, one child is mentally ill. The man has a small cart outside of a school. He sells drinks, snacks, pencils, paper and erasers to the school children. It is a way to have a bit of income to feed his family.

He had cataracts in both eyes. UEH [University Eye Hospital] was able to give him sight saving surgery for free. This simple surgery has made a huge difference in his sight. He can now see the currency clearly and identify faces. The children enjoy him and he enjoys them.


A family we know in Miami Youth for Christ is closely connected with a family whose daughter was among the physicians with the International Assistance Mission who were murdered earlier this month in Afghanistan. (IAM's medical efforts there center on diseases of the eye.) She had been working in that country with IAM for six years. Another daughter had just returned to the states after visiting her sister for two weeks.

As I did some last minute preparation for my Sunday School lesson this morning (such preparations always seem to be "last minute."), I thought about this young doctor and her death, immediately after reading verse 25 of Romans 4:

He was delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised to life for [because of] our justification.

As heart-breaking as this martyrdom is for this young woman's family and her friends (even us), we know that she will be "raised to life." What of the people who live in darkness in Afghanistan? This woman gave her life for them. She brought them sight, physically, which is the perfect metaphor for the Gospel to which she also witnessed. God calls us to praise his name through our tears, for God will give (has given) her life back to her, with a commendation of "well-done."

We only have so much time on this earth. As we think about what happened, shall we spend even a moment shaking our fists at the murderous outlaws (who may or may not have been Taliban) or shall we spend our precious time praising God for such witnesses as this young woman and such truths as she carried to that riven country? And shall we pray for our enemies there to boot?

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