Mosquitos
Another crash…
Yesterday afternoon, a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis flipped upside down on the runway at Toronto International Airport while attempting to land. Thankfully, all 80 passengers survived, though several were critically injured. This incident is the most recent in a string of airline accidents since the beginning of the 2025. First, the collision of an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the Potomac River that caused the loss of 67 souls. Two days later, a medivac flight crashed into a NE Philadelphia neighborhood just one minute into its flight, killing all on board and one on the ground. The explosion from the crash wounded 24 others and left hundreds of homes damaged. A week later, a small plane crashed in Alaska, killing all 10 on board. And then yesterday… The news that another plane has crashed unnerves many would-be travelers and leaves all of us wondering if something is terribly wrong. Statistically, air travel is still by far the safest mode of long range travel, but these high profile stories leave us wondering…
As I listened to the news story last night, I was reminded of a book I read years ago- The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision U.S. Chapter 9 is entitled- One Hundred Crashing Jetliners. Stearns opens that chapter with an observation that mirrors our recent experience. Whenever a major jetliner crashes, a media frenzy ensues covering every aspect of the tragedy- what happened and what needs to be done to prevent such tragedies in the future? We see the faces of those lost and learn their names and their stories. For a moment we are swept up in the heartbreak. Stearns goes on to pose a question: Imagine that you woke this morning to the following headline: “One Hundred Jetliners Crash- Killing 26,500.” Such news would create pandemonium. Air travel would halt as Heads of State and government bodies struggled to assess the cause. The FBI… CIA… NTSB… and perhaps other letters in the alphabet would convene to grapple with the crisis. Imagine the avalanche of media coverage… panicked travelers… cancelled trips.
Stearns continues… Imagine, waking tomorrow to that same headline: “One Hundred Jetliners Crash- Killing 26,500.” As you read the text, you realize that the tragedy has happened again. Unimaginable! Yet, Stearn reports that it did happen today, and it will happen again tomorrow, just as it happened yesterday. But there will be no Heads of State, no parliament or congress focused on the crisis. No investigations will be launched even though today over 26,000 children will die of preventable causes related to their poverty. It happened yesterday, and it will happen tomorrow, and the day after that. Over 10,000,000 children will die this year due to poverty. Why does one plane crash dominate the front pages of our newspapers, while 100 jetliners full of children crashing is not even noticed?
We can’t blame the media; they just give us what we want to hear. Truth be told, we have a limit to how much suffering we can bear to see. They call it “compassion fatigue.” The numbers are overwhelming. The people too far away. Our compassion for others seems to be directly correlated to how close that person is to us socially, emotionally, culturally, ethnically, economically, geographically. This past week, many of you stopped me to share your connection to the accident in NE Philly. You grew up in that neighborhood. Your son lives just blocks away. You were just there shopping. Suddenly, those connections make the story of that accident personal, and the lives impacted a little more important. I sat with a friend yesterday. She is one of our Chalfont neighbors. Her family lives below the poverty line. Every month is a crisis. Their plight weighs on my heart because she is my friend. But her family is just one of many in our community. We know intellectually that in God’s world all lives matter. We know all are equally precious in the eyes of God and should be important to us. But our human compassion has limits. How can we care for all who are hurting today? So, we turn the page to the sports section…
You will not be surprised that this is the point when your bleeding-heart pastor points out God’s call in sacred pages of His Word. We all know the lesson of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), that we should stop and care for those in need. That parable echoes Isaiah 58 and Micah 6:8. The Old Testament law calls us to care for the alien in our midst and reminds us that we are known by how we care for widows and orphans. We remember the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25)- “Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me.” And we know the summary of the God’s law- Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus teaches us that loving our neighbor, even those who are our enemy, is the truest way to love our God. Yes, the Bible must have been written by bleeding hearts… actually by the Creator of all those bleeding hearts. I know those passages. I read those passages. I preach and teach those passages. But the truth is, those passages just make me feel convicted and helpless, all at the same time. Until I remember an African proverb: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito.”
Perhaps today is the day to be a mosquito.
Today, I am going to pick up some extra groceries to share with our neighbors- a bag to drop in the cart at church. Sunday, I plan to join you as we pack 25,000 meals after worship. And each day, I will pray the prayer of the founder of World Vision: Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours.
With you, learning to be a kindly mosquito,
Anita
Yesterday afternoon, a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis flipped upside down on the runway at Toronto International Airport while attempting to land. Thankfully, all 80 passengers survived, though several were critically injured. This incident is the most recent in a string of airline accidents since the beginning of the 2025. First, the collision of an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the Potomac River that caused the loss of 67 souls. Two days later, a medivac flight crashed into a NE Philadelphia neighborhood just one minute into its flight, killing all on board and one on the ground. The explosion from the crash wounded 24 others and left hundreds of homes damaged. A week later, a small plane crashed in Alaska, killing all 10 on board. And then yesterday… The news that another plane has crashed unnerves many would-be travelers and leaves all of us wondering if something is terribly wrong. Statistically, air travel is still by far the safest mode of long range travel, but these high profile stories leave us wondering…
As I listened to the news story last night, I was reminded of a book I read years ago- The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision U.S. Chapter 9 is entitled- One Hundred Crashing Jetliners. Stearns opens that chapter with an observation that mirrors our recent experience. Whenever a major jetliner crashes, a media frenzy ensues covering every aspect of the tragedy- what happened and what needs to be done to prevent such tragedies in the future? We see the faces of those lost and learn their names and their stories. For a moment we are swept up in the heartbreak. Stearns goes on to pose a question: Imagine that you woke this morning to the following headline: “One Hundred Jetliners Crash- Killing 26,500.” Such news would create pandemonium. Air travel would halt as Heads of State and government bodies struggled to assess the cause. The FBI… CIA… NTSB… and perhaps other letters in the alphabet would convene to grapple with the crisis. Imagine the avalanche of media coverage… panicked travelers… cancelled trips.
Stearns continues… Imagine, waking tomorrow to that same headline: “One Hundred Jetliners Crash- Killing 26,500.” As you read the text, you realize that the tragedy has happened again. Unimaginable! Yet, Stearn reports that it did happen today, and it will happen again tomorrow, just as it happened yesterday. But there will be no Heads of State, no parliament or congress focused on the crisis. No investigations will be launched even though today over 26,000 children will die of preventable causes related to their poverty. It happened yesterday, and it will happen tomorrow, and the day after that. Over 10,000,000 children will die this year due to poverty. Why does one plane crash dominate the front pages of our newspapers, while 100 jetliners full of children crashing is not even noticed?
We can’t blame the media; they just give us what we want to hear. Truth be told, we have a limit to how much suffering we can bear to see. They call it “compassion fatigue.” The numbers are overwhelming. The people too far away. Our compassion for others seems to be directly correlated to how close that person is to us socially, emotionally, culturally, ethnically, economically, geographically. This past week, many of you stopped me to share your connection to the accident in NE Philly. You grew up in that neighborhood. Your son lives just blocks away. You were just there shopping. Suddenly, those connections make the story of that accident personal, and the lives impacted a little more important. I sat with a friend yesterday. She is one of our Chalfont neighbors. Her family lives below the poverty line. Every month is a crisis. Their plight weighs on my heart because she is my friend. But her family is just one of many in our community. We know intellectually that in God’s world all lives matter. We know all are equally precious in the eyes of God and should be important to us. But our human compassion has limits. How can we care for all who are hurting today? So, we turn the page to the sports section…
You will not be surprised that this is the point when your bleeding-heart pastor points out God’s call in sacred pages of His Word. We all know the lesson of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), that we should stop and care for those in need. That parable echoes Isaiah 58 and Micah 6:8. The Old Testament law calls us to care for the alien in our midst and reminds us that we are known by how we care for widows and orphans. We remember the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25)- “Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me.” And we know the summary of the God’s law- Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus teaches us that loving our neighbor, even those who are our enemy, is the truest way to love our God. Yes, the Bible must have been written by bleeding hearts… actually by the Creator of all those bleeding hearts. I know those passages. I read those passages. I preach and teach those passages. But the truth is, those passages just make me feel convicted and helpless, all at the same time. Until I remember an African proverb: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito.”
Perhaps today is the day to be a mosquito.
Today, I am going to pick up some extra groceries to share with our neighbors- a bag to drop in the cart at church. Sunday, I plan to join you as we pack 25,000 meals after worship. And each day, I will pray the prayer of the founder of World Vision: Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours.
With you, learning to be a kindly mosquito,
Anita
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