...the world is not fair...

I sat in one of the lecture halls at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and eagerly waited for the professor to start his lecture. I had my notebook opened, ready to document every important piece of information the professor shared with us. He began by saying,

“…The world is not a fair place…

… Someone dies from HIV every 10 seconds…

…1 child dies from malaria every 30 seconds…

…1 child dies from malnutrition every 40 seconds…

…30,000 children die EVERY day from PREVENTABLE diseases…&

…4,000 people die DAILY from lack of access to clean water & sanitation...”

I sat in my chair and scribbled notes rapidly as the professor continued to discuss the tragic reality of our world today. The professor presented statistic after statistic describing the horrid, hellish situations many people face daily. If you are like me, you are skeptical of statistics and your brain kind of shuts off, when presented with a list of numbers… Sure, statistics have their place in the world, but what is more important is every statistic represents a precious, valuable life. The professor continued to talk, but my mind was far from the lecture hall… I was picturing the faces behind the statistics…


I was back in Africa. I was sitting on the dirty ground in the suffocating heat, dripping with sweat, cuddling the fragile, dark-skinned children at the orphanage. I was uselessly swatting malaria, mosquitoes away from the tribal children as they sat in the dirt with hungry, tummies rumbling. I was back on the Mercy Ship. It was late at night and in the shadows you could see a couple in a tight embrace. There was nothing but pure love in the embrace, but it wasn’t a romantic love holding the couple together. It was the love of a nurse for her patient, the love of an American girl for her African sister. It was the love of Jesus shown with human hands. It was me holding my 16 year old African patient in her bed, on the ward, as she wept in the middle of the night because she leaks urine all the time related to a traumatic pregnancy and the free surgery we gave her, did not completely solve her problem. I was back on the dock in war torn, Monrovia, Liberia saddened that we had to turn yet another patient away because the need is so overwhelming, but time is so limited. I was in Chile listening to story after story about the damage the tsunami had done and how with every aftershock fear, panic, and anxiety well up in the people’s hearts. I was in Bolivia hugging the Señora as she wept, explaining she didn’t know where her next meal would come from. I was in New Hampshire caring for my patient, a pastor’s wife, with a broken hip. She had already broken her other hip and arm. She was so discouraged, her pain increasing daily. She was barely 5o years of age, but the cancer coursing through her bones had weakened them to the breaking point. I was in Canada in my last year of nursing school, working in the adolescent psychiatry ward and caring for a missionary kid the age of 16 who had tried to take his life after being fed up with the legalism that his parents and church were imposing upon him… Memory after memory of the sites and scenes of suffering that I have encountered in my mere 28 years of life came flooding over me. My professor was right, the world is not fair.


I believe all of us are well aware of the suffering in the world. The question then becomes what does one do with this information. When looking at the statistics it is very depressing. It is easy to become angry with God. Sometimes we question how a loving God could allow so much suffering. At times we wonder if God even exists. We ask God why there is so much suffering in the world! I have wrestled with these very questions, but have realized we can question our lives away, but suffering persists. But, did you ever ponder that our questions could be reversed? What if God asked you why there is so much suffering in the world? What if God asked you why you didn’t do something about it? My challenge to you today: Be the change you want to see in the world. Show people that the world may not be fair, but that you still care.