Imagine

Imagine that you’re told by the doctor that you’re HIV positive.  Imagine that you are a single mother with 2 children.  Imagine that you work as a support worker within one of the poorest communities in your country.  Imagine that you regularly have more children come to your school than you have food.  Imagine that you spend your days caring for other people suffering with HIV.

Imagine that you are one of the most alive people in the world.  That you light up a room with your laugh and smile and that you praise and worship God in everything.

I met someone in Zambia recently when I was volunteering that was all of these people.  Who puts me to shame when I feel tired or get frustrated with work or life.

Someone who loves God when many would blame him for their illness.

Who lives life to the full in a place where it looks impossible.

Who gives generously out of her poverty.

Who inspired us, who went there to be inspiring.

I hope one day to live life in a way where inspiration and light shine out of me a fraction of the amount that it does from the countless people I’ve met like this living in the harshest of places in the world.

 

Positive

I was messing around with photoshop and came up with this.

I had an idea of the response I wanted to provoke with it related to HIV but as I look at it again it’s taken on a fresh meaning for me.

Just staring at it I’m reminded of the cross.  I’m reminded of Jesus’ blood.  I’m reminded of the contrast between the potential of a life lived in Christ full of colour and vitality and the dull, darkness of a life lived without.

As a creative person, I never cease to be amazed at how I can create something, write a song or whatever and think that I’m very clever and then discover that actually God has woven something entirely different into it and given it new meaning.

Who’s the clever one there really?

World Aids Day

So today is World Aids Day.  I read somewhere that it is actually the 20th anniversary.

The reality for me is that every day is World Aids Day.  Large chunks of my day job are dedicated to educating people about the links between HIV and poverty.  Highlighting the need for free universal access to ARVs.  Working to break down the taboos and stigma attached to HIV.  Working to educate people on how to protect themselves.

I have a dream that one day we will live in a just world.  A world where mothers don’t have to choose whether to feed their children milk formula mixed with contaminated water or to breast fead even though their child may contract HIV from them.  A world where fathers don’t need to choose which of their children should get ARVs.  A world where no-one is dispensable, where everyone can live with dignity, can access an education.   Live free from fear and suffering and injustice.

I’ve spent a while trying to think of something appropriate to end this entry, at the end of the day what is there to say?  All that is left is to hope and pray that every year when the 1st December comes around there are less people contracting HIV than before, that everyone who does can access care.  That we are one year closer to living in a just world.  And to remember and pray for the real people with real lives being destroyed by HIV and poverty.

In his name

I watched some of the film Dogma last night and one of the lines was something about God not getting annoyed at the stupid stuff that humans did, but all the wrong stuff we do in his name.

It got me thinking about the things we do in his name and the things we don’t do that we could.

Do we spend too much time trying to be God on earth?  Should we leave judgement and punishment and all other “ments” up to God and concern ourselves more with the business of grace/  Are people too busy saying that condom use is a sin to do anything to put out the fire of HIV in Africa?  Are we too busy looking after our special rooms in churches by not using them or by not inviting the “wrong people” in to use the rooms for God’s glory and offer friendship to people? Does God care more if there is a stain on the carpet or a stain on people’s lives or relationships?

I think we need to be careful about what we do in his name.  I think we need to be careful about the things that we let distract us because we think they are important.  I think we need to be especially careful about being too busy with religious stuff to actually do something important for God.