I heard the other day from a friend that revenue from ticket sales for the flick Avatar is more than enough to rebuild Haiti. Sure Haiti has its problems, institutional, political, social etc. But I haven’t been thinking about that. I’ve been thinking about how I bought one of those tickets to Avatar.
Last night I sat watching the superbowl (ok I watched a few of the commercials) and all I could think about was how much money one of those commercials cost to make and then run during the superbowl. And my mind immediately went to wondering how much of Haiti could be reubilt for that one commercial.
And it’s not just Haiti. It’s Africa. It’s India. It’s Cabrini Green in Chicago. It’s Grundy County, TN. It’s Dorothy, a woman who is homeless in Franklin and has been sleeping in our sanctuary at night.
I keep thinking about the ticket I bought to Avatar. I really wanted to see it. I really enjoyed it: Its profundity still pursues me. In fact I wanted to see it again. But what’s on my mind now is that I can go see it again. I can buy another ticket and I can go see Avatar again. That’s my lot in life. That’s the luxury of the world I live in.
Sure I realize natural disaster like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricaines, tsumani’s can and do hit anywhere. Money and luxury can’t save your life from the wrong twist of a twister. But devastation does seem, at least on the surface, to be far more visible and long-suffering when the house you live in has no foundations to begin with.
Now please know I’m not poo pooing money or possessions or solid built houses. This really isn’t about you, this is about me. And I am acknowledging that I live a luxurious life, next to most people of the world.
What’s on my mind is the world into which I was born. And the ticket that I, along with 120,000,000 others bought – totalling enough to rebuild Haiti.
I don’t really have any answers. I’m not sure I’m really asking any questions. I am really stating a fact that I just can’t seem to shake from my mind - I was born into a world where I buy tickets to see movies that cost 280 million dollars to make and companies spend 2.6 million dollars to air their 30 second commercial during a football game.
That’s the world I was born into.
That’s what’s been on my mind.
And I’m just not sure what to do about any of it but pray because the abyss seems to great to conquer between my world and even Dorothy’s.
your kingdom come, your way be done, on earth as it is in heaven.



