The past few days social media has been flooded with articles, images and posts about the suicide of our beloved actor Robin Williams. We all loved him, we all grew up with him and of course we are all saddened by his death. I will be the first in line to advocate for those with mental health issues. My children are plagued with these issues and will likely be for the rest of their lives. I am a card carrying member of NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Health) and have even attended the training to become and instructor for their classes to educate parents of children with mental health challenges.
HOWEVER, it disturbs me how caught up our nation has become with this death this week, especially given the other events that are going on around the world.
There are CHILDREN BEING BEHEADED in Iraq by terrorists.
Children are dying in orphanages all over the world, some who have families ready to adopt them and bring them home, but are unable to because of governmental red tape.
Thousands are suffering and dying in Western Africa from the Ebola epidemic.
Countries are at war with one another, and as is with war, innocent civilians are dying in the crossfire.
Hundreds of Nigerian girls have been missing for months now who were kidnapped from their school by terrorists, and are certainly facing unimaginable atrocities.
I know, it is easier to just bury our heads in the sand and push these horrific happenings out of our minds. How in the world could we sleep at night if we didn't? We all just go on with our privileged lives as if all is well. Can you imagine what the victims of the above mentioned cruelties would think if they saw how much of our media in the US has been devoted to the death of a famous movie star? Talk about first world problems!
I know it's so incredibly overwhelming to think about these horrific things, I mean what can we even do about it anyways? We can pray. We can get down on our knees and intentionally pray for these people all over the world who are suffering at the hands of evil and illness. Ask God what He wants YOU to do. It may mean donating monetarily to an organization that is working directly with those affected, it may mean organizing a fundraiser, you may feel led to write/call/email your government representative to express your passion and concern over these issues or you may feel called to take more specific actions. We need to "check ourselves before we wreck ourselves", meaning we need to maintain perspective. We can't keep living in our American bubble. All of these things going on in "someone else's backyard" will eventually directly affect all of us. It's important. All of God's people are important, not just the famous ones.
