I speak to these people, and I speak to you because I cannot help it. It gives me strength, almost unbelievable strength, to know that you are there. I covet your eyes, your ears, the collapsible space between us. How blessed are we to have each other? I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words. I will fill today, tomorrow, every day until I am taken back to God. I will tell stories to people who will listen and to people who don't want to listen, to people who seek me out and to those who run. All the while I will know that you are there. How can I pretend that you do not exist? It would be almost as impossible as you pretending that I do not exist.

What is the What

Wow. I finally finished this book last night. I love reading, but it always takes forever for me to finish a book! But isn't this amazing??? This particular section is right at the end of the book. This is how it is finished. It left me speechless. Valentino Achak Deng, the "author," is a refugee from southern Sudan... an amazing story. Throughout the book he goes back and forth from his current situation to past memories. It's awesome.

The last two lines of that book, "How can I pretend that you do not exist? It would be almost as impossible as you pretending that I do not exist." Have had an effect on me. How can we pretend that people and their situations do not exist? How can we blatantly ignore the homeless on our corner, those that are hurting from deep emotional problems; how can we ignore? We stay in our little bubble... for some it's our "Christian bubble" for others our "Bubble of Comfort." It's so nice and comfy in our own little world when we don't have to worry about other people's problems. But we were asked to carry each others' burdens, to help those who need it, to not be selfish with our life... because it's not ours. We should live for the One who gave us this life. To do those things that He has set for us to do. To be with the poor, the broken-hearted, the hopeless and dying. To be the encouragement and bringer of hope and life.