The Awakening

Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James 2:17

I opened my eyes this morning to a headline that screamed: Palace to fight rebel troops ‘fire with fire’.

Things like this do not scare me. Like any other place in the world, bad things happen in this country everyday. Each morning, I wake up to a world that has barely changed. It seems that the world, in general, never learns from its mistakes.

Why bother then? If you live in a highly troubled place, your most likely defense mechanism is indifference. Unknowingly, the youth has exactly embodied that.

Nowadays, the young generation is too pre-occupied of small things like getting the latest mobile phone model, or playing the newest interactive PC game. Although nothing is wrong with these things, comfort is known to cultivate apathy. One may flaunt his sleek Nike shoes or clad himself with shirts with famous tags, but he never realizes that an undernourished African kid walks miles bare foot to fetch water, or an 8-year old Abu Sayaff trainee has a heart as cold as the barrel of the gun he carries.

I am one lucky kid because I came from an above-average family. But I don’t think it should stop there. I should look beyond those petty things. I should understand that this world is not going to get better if I got my new i-Pod. That poor African boy will not get fed neither if I have my overpriced Starbucks coffee every afternoon. I have to open my eyes to the cold, hard facts of life. This world needs my attention, now.

I may be little, but a rain started with a single small drop and it quenched the world. From the simple obeying of rules at school, by being at peace with myself and by demonstrating simplicity in my ways, I can show to my friends that world peace needs no nuclear weapons. I should tell my friends that they should put more regard to education because arcades and bar-hopping do not make heroes out of people. I should let them see that the world’s problem is also their problem, enough of the growing apathy towards the issues but rather becoming critical with them.
 
Maybe it is time for us, the youth, to open our eyes, to dedicate our lives to something larger than ourselves and pleasures, to the largest thing we can: to God, to healing the sufferings, to contributing to knowledge, to adding to literature, or something else. Annie Dillard said happiness lies this way and it beats pleasure hollow.

Whatever little difference I would make may not change the world. But I have opened my eyes and it will never close again. Who knows, that may change tomorrow’s headline.